Images of valor adorn Cedar Street building

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Mike McClure is back in Nevada and a new mural adorns a local building. McClure, Willow Springs, began discussing the mural back in May with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the Bushwhacker Museum on the proposed mural and Friday those talks came to fruition. "We talked off and on for over a month about what we wanted to present. Then it took a little over a month to do the actual painting but that was broken up over a longer period of time." The choice of material for the mural was the subject of much discussion. "They wanted a patriotic theme depicting soldiers from Vernon County of different eras. I used photos for some of the figures like the sailor and the woman at the top of the mural, they were both done from photos, some of the others were as well. The mural dipicts soldiers in different eras from the Spanish American War to the latest war in Iraq. Along the bottom border depictions of various medals form the backdrop for patches from units Vernon Countians have served in. Uncle Sam points his finger from the bottom right corner while someone McClure dubbed Mrs. Sam spreads her arms wide. Uncle Sam comes from World War I recruiting posters while Mrs. Sam is from a poster urging the reader to buy bonds during the same war. The soldiers march from the right of the painting toward the left starting out with blue uniformed 19th century soldiers, then World War I doughboys, World War II GI's, Korean era GI's, Vietnam era soldiers, ending with present day fighters. "You can see how the technology changes. The train at the right represents the way soldiers were moved in the previous century, the helicopter at the left shows the way they are transported today," said McClure. "I like to think this represents the individual courage of ordinary people under extremely trying circumstances. We could have used generals but we went with the average person people can feel they understand better. I chose to show the way the soldiers would really be, slogging along doing their job instead of trying to glamorize them." McClure's first mural he painted in Nevada is on the building that houses Perry Grizzle's insurance office. "The first mural I did for Nevada is the largest I've done -- it's 12 by 60 (feet). This one is 12 by 46 (feet) and it's the second largest. I appreciate the opportunity to do public works in my own neck of the woods. When I do a painting for a private person they're the only one able to appreciate it. When I do public work more people get to see it." McClure also expressed his appreciation for the people he has worked with in Nevada. "They've given me the freedom to do these things and I really appreciate the opportunity to work with them again. The people here are very easy to work with." McClure has been doing murals for more than 10 years and he finds the painting the easy part. "I'm not a carpenter so the framework to hold the mural is the hard part for me. This wall has been a special challenge because it has column so the structure to hold it is more complex. Building the structure to hold this mural was definitely more challenging than the painting."

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