BICENTENNIAL MURAL WORK TO BEGIN

A team of mural artists will converge on Cape Girardeau later this month to transfer artist Jake Wells' Bicentennial Mural design to a wall at Broadway and Fountain.

Preparation work is under way now and the mural is expected to be finished by the end of the month.

Larry Weatherford, owner of Weatherford Signs of Carbondale, Ill., is overseeing the project.

"I'm really looking forward to this. I'm a big fan of Cape Girardeau," Weatherford said.

He said a team of painters, all with fine arts training, will assemble in Cape Girardeau to paint the mural.

On July 20, they will begin transferring the image to the wall and painting the mural.

"Mural painting is not sign painting," he said. "It's pretty specialized. We are working with a painting presented to us by Jake Wells. He studied under Thomas Hart Benton, and that's real exciting for us."

He said the mural painters have a challenge to transfer Wells' image to the wall. "We will try to capture the essence of the character Mr. Wells put down."

Weatherford said the other mural projects in Cape Girardeau have been different simply because the designs have been different.

"For this project, we need special paint and special equipment and special brushes," he said.

"The responsibility on my head is to take Mr. Wells' work to fruition with the skills of journeymen," Weatherford said.

He added that he hopes Wells will be able to observe the transference. "I hope he will be able to serve as a critic and offer his guidance and support."

Weatherford's company does special projects like this around the country, including work at St. Louis' Union Station.

"We've done church ceilings in Colorado and gambling casinos and riverboats," Weatherford said. "Special projects need special people."

The Cape Girardeau Bicentennial Committee has designated the project as its Bicentennial Mural, said Tim Blattner, a spokesman for the River Heritage Mural Association, which is sponsoring the mural project.

The 40-by-22 foot mural is the fifth project of the mural association, which has a goal of creating 10 murals in 10 years in Cape Girardeau.

"We are doing wall preparation this week and next week," Blattner said. Preparation work includes repairing the cracks in the wall and then putting special sealers and primers on the wall, Blattner explained. "Then we will use a special mural paint for the transference."

Blattner said the association contacted Weatherford Signs to complete the project. "This particular mural is one of Jake's works and requires very special attention to do a quality job of transferring the design to the wall," Blattner said.

The mural association is financing the mural by selling 100, 28-by-15-inch prints of the design.

"We think we're close to having the funding complete," Blattner said.

Wells, a Cape Girardeau artist who is retired as head of the art department at Southeast Missouri State University, is placing a hand-painted, watercolor remarque in the lower left margin of 50 of the prints.

"A remarque is a small original drawing that is usually placed in the lower left of a print," said Blattner. "The significance of the remarque is that it allows the artist to add personalization to the piece because it is an original drawing."

"At this point, we have some prints remaining," Blattner said. "The special prints with remarque are relatively few. I expect them to be gone by the end of the month. With the painting of the mural, that should heighten interest."

Cost of the prints, which are now available, is $250 with remarques, and $175 without the remarque. Additional information concerning the prints is available by contacting Blattner, 334-3288; Wells, 334-1207, or Patty Mulkey, 335-6333.

The original painting of the mural has been donated by Wells to the River Heritage Museum.