• Article Photo. Members of Vinton's Guild of Fine Arts complete the first Mural in the Library
    Members of Vinton's Guild of Fine Arts complete the first Mural in the Library
The Vinton Public Library had a little bit of a facelift in their children's area on the lower level of the library. Artists from the local Vinton Guild of Fine Arts were invited by Janette McMahon of the Vinton Public Library to paint a couple of murals downstairs as well as one of the pillars. The first of the two has been completed. 

With the help of the Guild, area artists left to right. Kim Frazier, Gloria Orcutt, Kim Fischels, Anita Gordon, Maggie Johnson, and (not pictured) Anita's granddaughter Renae Patterson (age 13 who helped out a bit on the cat), there is now a brand new mural to check out when you check out your books!
The idea for the design was that of Kim Frazier. "The walls were currently a dark brown!" Frazier said. so the guild, with what Frazier said was "little to no experience doing a full wall mural, it seemed like a good learning opportunity."

"The Library's theme was "color my world",  so I couldn't help thinking of ways to use coloring books and crayons and came up with the coloring book elements coming to life on a full-color coloring book wall," said Frazier. "Jeanette stressed that she wanted to see a lot of colors, so we really thought this theme would hit that mark.  Everything had to be outlined in black, and the coloring was supposed to be mostly solid colors and even a little outside the lines was ok."

Work on the mural began back in mid-April with the group painting one or two evenings a week and Sunday afternoons.  It was rare for all five members (and Renae) to make it to the library at the same time, "it was usually just 2 or 3 of us, so this took a bit longer than we thought," Fraizer said. Artists have to decide when to stop on a project, or when it's "finished." " We just decided it was finished on the 16th, but we could have kept adding little elements to it all summer long," Frazier said.  

"We are planning to do a second wall for the library this fall, possibly with an underwater theme, but we haven't worked out any details yet," Anita Gordon said.

Frazier said that the second wall will transition to the new theme so it looks like they belong together.  "I'm pretty sure there will be a large octopus on the next wall," she added.


Before the group starts on that, they have another project in the works, it's called the "Back Alley Art initiative." The group is looking for downtown building owners to step forward and be the first to get a mural on their alley-facing walls. 

The Vinton Community Foundation put some funding toward this pilot program to start this summer. The hope is to be able to finish two or three murals downtown. "These will all be "interactive", in the alleyways said Gordon.

Gordon who is coordinating the effort along with Melody Snow of Vinton Unlimited said "We're lining up building owners currently, as well as painters and helpers, and donors,"  She explained that Vinton Unlimited and Pourville are partners with the Guild on this project. 

If you'd like to contact the Guild to be part of this project, or you'd like to have your building alleyway considered for a  mural, contact the Guild through their Facebook page at this link.