This just in! A public mural painting has just come together to be part of the Luther Pecan Festival, and you can take part in the making of it for what is sure to be a new masterpiece. Local artist Lindy Jerlow is working with Jenny Bailey who owns the building that houses Boydston Bailey Funeral Home and Main St Nutrition. You’ve seen it, it’s the two story building on the west side of Main Street. Can’t miss it when you are coming into town.
Picture it with a beautiful mural on it; that we help paint! Vibrant and appealing to the selfie-generation. Murals are a thing with several mural districts all around the state that celebrate art, community, history and story-telling. It’s good for tourism too, as evidenced by the attention given to murals by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism.
This isn’t Luther’s first mural. Beth LaFave commissioned a piece on the side of the building at Main and Second Street with famed Rt 66 muralist Bob Palmer. It was completed several weeks ago to much acclaim. Depicted to represent different aspects of our town, from using the school colors of red and black, to including a barber pole as a nod to the barber shop that once was housed in the building that replaced a building that burned in 1926, and giving a nod to the nearby Mother Road/Route 66. The mural is beautiful for lots of selfie-taking during the Pecan Festival, or anytime you are in town.
Palmer who has Red Dirt Gallery in Wellston said painting the Luther mural was fun, he knows the town well, and knew how he wanted to depict it. While painting it, “people would stop and tell us how good it was looking, honk or give us a thumbs up while we were working on it.”
LaFave who owns “Beth’s Baubles and Bits” said she commissioned the work in hopes of bringing more visitors to Luther to support local businesses in our community. Luther is a community on the rebound to grow like its heyday after a quiet retail time due to various economic factors.
Palmer described that the east end of the painting is made for taking selfies. “Beth wanted that end to look like a garden so that it would attract people to stop and take a selfie there. She wanted a specific place for selfies, so that is what we did.”
At the other end of Luther’s small Main Street business district, another public work will come to life on Saturday. To recoup paint and other costs, we are asked to pay $1 for each circle or heart we want to spray paint on the building using a stencil and choosing from a variety of paint colors.
Checkout Jerlow’s art at Farmstead Cafe on Main Street. One of Luther’s many artists, she will also share some new paintings in the lot between the stage and the mural on Saturday.
“The Pecan Festival is about bringing the community together. Art does the same. So why not include a wall in that,” she said. Jerlow has been inspired by that blank space for years, and the time, inspiration and opportunity came together for this project. Plus she made some new friends along the way and looks forward to creating new relationships, over art, during the project.
Jerlow is one of several artists displaying their work at the Luther Pecan Festival. And she won’t be the only one demonstrating live painting. Florelle Studio, the Luther Pecan Festival’s first out-of-state artist comes from St. Louis. She will paint at her booth and hopes to visit with guests. She is also bringing some of her latest works on canvas and on cards.
Yes, the mural is BEAUTIFUL! But let’s get the math right. That building replaced one that burned in 1926, so it can’t be over 100 years old.
Thank you Sharon! My mistake – fingers flying and trusted what I thought I heard from Beth about the age. SO GREAT TO have a comment from you. Hope you are well. I will edit the story. TY. dawn