Sunday, July 8, 2007

Jared and I have returned back to the future, having spent all last month in the year 1858 while painting the Lincoln/Douglas debate mural in Ottawa, Illinois. (See my June 12th and 24th posts.) All these photos are courtesy of Peggy, Ottawa Visitor’s Center. Click photos to enlarge.
The mural is finished!
And we are glad!
They covered up this mural with huge tarps (quite a job in itself) and then unveiled it on dedication day. A nice crowd showed up. Even old Abe was there and got in on the act.
President Lincoln gamely tried out a new-fangled microphone.
Getting a closer look.
We shake hands with the fine folks of Ottawa. It was a challenging project but the support and encouragement of the community made it a lot of fun.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks fantastic guys!

Brendy Vaughn said...

What a huge, cool project. How wonderful to do something like that with your son - I bet you had a great time and made lots of memories.

Don Gray said...

Thanks to both of you for the nice comments. Yes, it was great to work with Jared again--it's been about 5 years since he's helped on a mural. We did have fun together.

Annette said...

Hi Don! I love walking by the mural every day. For the first week, every time I turned the corner I half expected you and Jared to be there working. Lola is enjoying her 15 minutes. People have been calling her "the mural dog" and asking her how it feels to be famous. She just barks and prances down the street. Whatever Lola wants...

Don Gray said...

Hi Annette, good to hear from you. Glad Lola's enjoying her fame. We sure appreciated all your hospitality while we were there, and of course your generosity in loaning Lola for a model!