COMMUNITY POSTCARDS: MURALS SPRING UP ALL OVER

A mural is more than splashing paint on walls.

"Murals are postcards of the community," said J. Tim Blattner of the River Heritage Mural Association, which has painted six outdoor murals in Cape Girardeau, including the "Wall of Fame," a giant, 14-x-500-foot mural on the city's Mississippi River wall.

Murals are out there for everybody to see, said Blattner. "They're decorative and historical."

"Cape Girardeau is fast becoming known as a town of murals," said Mary Miller, director of the Convention & Visitor's Bureau. "People are asking us about our Wall of Fame and other historical murals."

The CVB is preparing a special mural brochure listing the city's murals.

Miller said that besides the two giant river wall murals, there is the Jake Wells Mural at Kent Library at Southeast Missouri State University, murals inside city hall and Washington School, and the printing history mural on the side of the Southeast Missourian newspaper building.

Southeast Missouri Hospital plans to have a mural inside its new lobby.

Chemainus, a small community on little Vancouver Island off the Pacific Coast, recognized the use of murals as tourist attractions more than a decade ago.

When the community's only mill closed in 1983, people wondered if the town would die.

It didn't.

Chemainus thrives, hued in sprightly pastels that attract up to 400,000 tourists a year. Most tourists make detours to take in the 32 murals on both sides of buildings and standing walls.

Chemainus advertises itself with a copyrighted slogan, "The Little Town That Did." What it did was halt its slide a decade ago and transformed itself into something new, said Blattner, who has visited that area.

The Chemainus word spread, and many communities -- from Queensland, Australia, to Steubenville and Portsmouth in Ohio, and Welland, Ontario, Canada, -- have realized the importance of murals for tourism.

Paducah, Ky., is the latest to join the mural craze.

"We started our `wall-to-wall' project this summer," said Ro Morse, executive director for the Paducah/McCracken County Convention & Visitor Bureau. "We have commissioned for 20 panels between Broadway and Jefferson streets."

Four of the 16-foot-by-20-foot panels have been completed by noted artist Robert Dafford, of Lafayette, La.

Dafford painted one of the largest murals at Chemainus, "Waiting for the Whistle," on a cinder block wall of a Chemainus supermarket in 1989. He painted three of the 19 murals at Steubenville and has been commissioned by Portsmouth to paint 40 murals on a floodwall on the Ohio River.

"Dafford, who was in Portsmouth last week, will be in Paducah next week to start on his fifth panel here," said Morse. "He will complete two more panels this year."

Dafford will paint four panels a year at Paducah over the next three or four years.

The Paducah panels feature events based on the city's early history and is financed by private funds.

"An interpretive panel will be prepared for each art panel, explaining the painting," said Morse.

"We anticipate this will be a great tourist attraction," she said. "We're very tourism oriented. We feel it will be an amazing boost for the city."

Morse indicated the CVB will eventually prepare a mural brochure.

Dafford uses brilliant colors, and the perspective appears to draw viewers right into the picture. Dafford's brother Douglas and local artists helps in the artwork.

Paducah has three large artist groups -- PAPA's (Paducah Area Painters Alliance), Yeiser Arts Center and Working Artists.

Jackson unveiled its first mural during the city's Homecomers celebration.

The mural features a portrait of President Andrew Jackson, for whom the city was named. Jackson was the first community named after a president, said Herb Wickham, chairman of the city's mural committee.

Welland, Canada, patterned its mural program after the project in Chemainus.

Welland, southeast of Niagara Falls, transformed itself from a fading sawmill town into a mecca for mural lovers.

The Welland Murals Project, said an executive of the Region Niagara Tourist Council, has put Welland on the tourism map, attracting visitors and motorcoach tours.

Thousands of visitors annually take in tours of Welland's 27 murals.

Steubenville bills its mural program as the "City of Murals, Where History Comes Alive." The Stuebenville project is underwritten by the business community, citizens, the city and the Ohio Department of Development.

The Jake Wells historic mural in Kent Library one of the first notable murals in Cape Girardeau.

The grandfather of all murals in Cape Girardeau, however, is the Southeast Missourian mural, a two-panel, tile mural, entitled "Art of Printing" and "Gathering & Disseminating News."

The first mural by the River Heritage Mural Association went up in 1986. To date, six outdoor murals and an indoor one have been produced.

The outdoor murals are all downtown and feature historic scenes.

One mural, The Wall of Fame, generated a controversy after its completion. Much of the controversy focused on the colors used to paint the mural.

"We've added some color to the mural," said Blattner, "and we're now receiving some positive responses. We may add some additional color in the future."

Blattner has visited mural projects in Welland, Steubenville and Chemainus.

"The thing that amazes me about Chemainus is that you have to make a special trip on a ferry to go there," said Blattner, "yet, 400,000 people make that side trip."

Blattner said the Cape Girardeau murals are also making an impact on tourism.

"We're seeing more and more people coming downtown to look at the murals," he said. "It's a source of community pride. The murals are decorative and historical."

Having murals displayed is being up front with the community, said Blattner, adding that the murals kind of say, "Hey look at us."