ONCRC mural taking shape: Artist David Spear shares progress and challenges

Spear packed up his paint buckets and drove his boom lift to the shaded side of the building to continue his work. Spear is the artist heading up work on the new mural design at the ONCRC, which features scenes that display the area’s unique culture and heritage to passers-by. Spear said he has to rotate around the building, working in the shade throughout the day.

“It’s going to take some hit from the sun. None of us beat the sun. We’re all ephemeral sandcastles,” he said, while explaining the constant rotation. “You can’t work on a wall that’s too hot, because if you do and you paint on that wall, it’s going to peel faster over time. I’ve got to make sure I’m working on cool walls,” he said.

In previous months, Spear, a renowned artist who also works with the Missouri Department of Conservation as an exhibit editor and designer, met with SACBA (Salem Area Community Betterment Association) and other organizations to finalize the design for the mural.

“We had brainstorming sessions with all of the volunteers here. I showed them the three walls, and we went through and we made a whole list of things. Two hours later, we had another brainstorming session with Missouri Department of Conservation, the L-A-D Foundation, I think the Forest Service was involved, and some others that I don’t remember right now,” said Spear. “We listed all the things that we would love on the (mural), and then they came up and they had different color-coded markers, and they put a dot on things they really thought be in the mural. If you had five things to choose from on this list, which one would you think is really important? And it was really interesting, because both of the brainstorming sessions were almost exactly the same.”

According to Spear, the input from the community greatly informed the final design.

“Of course, we couldn’t include everything, we included as much as we could. And so, the design is really kind of like a community project, I can’t take all the credit for it. I’m like an app for your phone that kind of digests all the things that you want, then I put it up!” laughed Spear.

Work on the mural began in recent weeks. Spear, his daughter and his father began the mural by spray-painting a monochrome “doodle grid” on each wall. The grid (a series of somewhat random characters and doodles) helps Spear lay out the design as he goes—a method he says is much easier than spending the time and effort to lay out a grid.

“You can put up whatever you want. Numbers and letters are best, because you can follow it a little bit more.”

Spear uses his computer to digitally overlay the mural design over the grid, comparing elements of the mural’s design to the code and symbols written on the wall. He said this allows him to gauge perspective and layout.

According to Spear, his spray-paint doodle grid caused quite a disturbance amongst some Salem locals when they saw several strangers climbing around the building with spray-paint cans. He said several people thought the building was being “tagged”, or graffitied.

“I did warn them that it’s going to look worse before it looks better,” he said. “My daughter and my dad had been helping me out, especially the first two weeks. My daughter was the one that was ‘tagging’ the building. She was on the other side on a ladder when the cops pulled up. They were like ‘Young lady, what are you doing?’ and she’s like ‘I know this doesn’t look good’. She looks like the bravest vandal in the world, up on a ladder, out in broad daylight, tagging a building. […] He said ‘No! This doesn’t look good at all. She explained it to him, and he drove around and saw my dad and I, and he’s like ‘So, you belong here?’ We’re like ‘yep, we belong here,’ and explained what we’re doing. He seemed to get it, but my daughter will have a story,” said Spear.

Spear said he heard yelling out front of the center another day while he working on the doodle grid.

“[A lady] was mad because the building had been ‘graffitied’. Her husband stole my ladder, he took it and put it in the back of his truck. But then they came around, and I explained what was happening. (The gentleman) was like ‘come here,’ and he took the ladder out of the back of the truck and handed it to me. I don’t blame them, if people are tagging something, they don’t need a ladder to tag something,” said Spear. “I give a lot of people the benefit of the doubt. What was nice, is that when you’re working on a project like this, you want to make sure that people care about the building. This really, really taught me that people really care about the building,” he said.

Now that the doodle grid has mostly been covered by outlines and shading, the mural is really beginning to take shape. A broad-shouldered lumberjack can be seen swinging his axe toward a tree, a banjo picker plucks out a tune, a hunter spots a deer from his tree stand, and a bald eagle flies high over a snapping turtle.

Scenes of the culture of the Ozarks, Salem’s heritage, and nature’s wonder now adorn the building. Spear started painting outlines and shapes in monochrome gray, adding in color, shading, and depth as he rotates around the building against the sun.

“People have been driving around. I can’t foresee the future or anything, but people are really excited about it. They’ve been really positive,” said Spear. “I’ve learned a lot while I’m here, too, about the town.”

To Spears, the key to the piece is the Current River.

“They want this to be the gateway to the northern scenic riverways, you know? The Current River running through the entire piece, that’s the key. This is a beautiful area of the world that people kind of take for granted. That Current River runs all the time. There are rivers that don’t do that!” said Spears. “Hopefully this will get the enthusiasm going, this will add more revenue to the town. Salem’s on the map already, it’s not like I’m putting it on (the map), but the mural gives it a little bit more ‘Hey! What’s going on down here?”