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Harlan City Tourism has been working for years to beautify downtown Harlan, recently continuing the task by arranging for a new building sized mural on the side of the newly remodeled Harris Insurance Agency building in downtown Harlan.
Laura Adkisson, Harlan Tourism’s Downtown Development Coordinator, talked about the mural during a recent interview.
“Today we’re here celebrating the 90th anniversary of Harris Insurance and also their newly redone building,” Adkisson said. “In addition to the beautiful storefront, they have worked alongside us to install a mural on the side of their building.”
According to Adkisson, the theme of the mural reflects a city tradition of decorating the alley with colorful umbrellas.
“Years ago, this became our Umbrella Alley,” Adkisson said. “We wanted to reflect that concept with the mural and make it a very colorful thing and also work in the mountains that surround our town. The artists had a brilliant idea to hide secret pictures within the mural that relate to Harlan County. It may be native animals, local attractions and sites, homages to some of the local schools, it’s all hidden in there.”
Harlan Tourism funded the mural out of their downtown development budget and worked with artists from Kustom FX Graphics to make the mural happen, Adkisson explained.
“We worked with a group of local artists that included Darian, Vicki, and Donovan White, Nora Hall, and Liv Petty-Taylor to put their touch on the mural,” Adkisson said.
Taylor explained the process the artists utilized to create the mural.
“They wanted some options, so we made up about 40 to 45 mockups for them to choose from,” Petty-Taylor said. “They chose this scene, with umbrellas looking over Black Mountain. All of the umbrellas are different colors, so they match every season.”
Petty-Taylor mentioned it was decided the mural should be an interactive work.
“Darian had the idea to put an umbrella where people could take pictures, then it escalated from there to ‘lets hide easter eggs,’” Petty-Taylor said.
Easter eggs are hidden elements within the mural which people can search for as they view the work, Petty-Taylor explained.
“By the time we were done, we had 28 little Easter eggs for people to find,” Petty-Taylor said. “There are little bitty animals to find in the mural itself.”
Darian White explained that the mural took a total of approximately 500 hours to complete.
The mural can be viewed on the side of the Harris Insurance Agency building located at 118 Eversole Street in downtown Harlan.