Danville, Illinois and the gathering of Wall Dogs is now but a fun memory - but what a memory! After getting up at 4:00 am local time, and traveling all day we jumped right into the process of creating a mural or rather 15 massive murals on the walls. Each wall would feature some aspect of the local history. My project was but only one that was to be finished only three days later. More than 160 artists had gathered from as far away as New Zealand to make it so. We projected the murals and traced the designs onto the walls the night I arrived. After a very long day I was glad to get some sleep when the light faded.
Thursday morning dawned bright and warm. Since my wall faced south and the temperatures was in the mid 90's (with humidity to match) I slathered on the sunscreen and set to work with my friends. Volunteers from Danville made sure we had everything we needed. The work progressed quickly and by nightfall of the first day the interurban mural was two thirds complete. I slept good that night! On Friday, thanks to awesome media coverage, the townspeople came out in force. Magic was happening before their eyes - all around town. My crew started peeling off to help other artists not quite as far along. We managed to make the painting last until suppertime before I declared the mural done. It measured about 24 feet wide by 18 feet tall.
The next day I got to relax as I helped a good friend of mine from Edmonton, Alberta who was project leader on another mural. The pressure was off as I only had to do what he asked - no real thinking involved. By Sunday all the murals were done from one end of town to the other and we bade goodbye - until the next time...
I arrived home very early this morning. My email box is full as is my answering machine. It was time to hit the ground running... back to the projects at hand!
-dan
