News : Mural Wrap up Celebration raises $7,100

Mike and Cindy Elwick with the prize of the night, the commemorative oval celebrating Vinton's 150th

Roger and Barb Beau with their painting of the Braille School

Carolyn Hibbs pictured with the artist that painted her picture

Ray and Carol Knoff with the Depot Painting created from one of the murals in town.

Terri and Joe Wehage with their painting depicting Sweetcorn Days

Frank and Kathy VanSteenhuyse with artist Michael Clark in front of the mural he created

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On Saturday, the Vinton Country Club was the site for one of the final opportunities to celebrate the completion of an amazing mural project in Vinton! The artists from the Walldogs project, who designed & painted our latest murals were in attendance as the auction piece miniatures of the murals downtown were awarded to the highest bidder. Joel Schmitz auctioned off the pieces.

Kicking off the Bidding was the Wehages with the handpainted picture commemorating the corn given away during Sweet Corn Days.

The most prized auction item of the night went to Mike and Cindy Elwick who went head to head in a bidding war with Mona Garwood over the oval presentation piece commemorating the Sesquicentennial celebration. The gold leaf piece sold for a whopping $1,850 the highest bid of the night. Several of the other pieces available were sold around the $500 price tag, a few for less.

As the room buzzed in anticipation of winning the pieces, there was a lot of laughter between the bidder and good-natured ribbing.

One of the Walldogs shared the stories behind the artists who painted the works or produced them. A few works of art were also donated by the artists which had nothing to do with the murals but were part of the auction.

Talking auction strategy with some of the crowd I heard stories of how other auctions where little was raised for the Walldogs while in a small town that housed the Sargento factory, the bidding total was upward of $40,000.

One of the most colorful of the paintings was one depicting the Braille School. It was a miniature of the mural painted for the downtown. The vivid colors in the piece made it stand out over most of the others.

The bidding quickly took off on this piece. In the pool of bidders, the bidding thinned out to just two. Frank VanSteenhuyse and Carolyn Hibbs. After realizing who he was bidding against, Frank quickly stepped out of the bidding realizing the importance of the painting to Carolyn who has worked tirelessly to advocate for what the Braille School brought to children affected by blindness. Her husband Mike taught there for years from his wheelchair and she came along later to help others affected by blindness which had affected her who whole life. This was probably the only piece of art that brought a tear to the winner's eye. The companion painting in a sepia tone was bought by Roger and Barb Beau. The two versions were painted by a mother-daughter duo.

The mural of the depot was painted by artist Bill Masters back in 2000 and he requested to repaint it again this year. The depot mural was one depicts a photo of Presidential Candidate of Howard Taft who made a whistle-stop in Vinton. This mural was one of the murasl that didn't fair well, but painting techniques have changed for the better over the course of the last 19 years. He also created a smaller version of the depot which was won by Ray and Carol Knoff.

In total, the auction brought in a total of $7,100.