It all started with an aging grain solo.
“It is 108 feet tall and 49 feet wide to be exact,” says Mindy Allen, owner of Mindy’s Murals in Junction City, Kan.
That one structure in Inman, Kan., served as Allen’s blank canvas, and over six weeks she transformed it into her largest mural yet.
As a full-time mural artist based in Kansas, she’s completed so many paintings and murals, Allen admits she’s actually lost count. But her latest masterpiece is one that took her more than a month to complete.
“It’s the largest on all aspects. I mean, largest as far as time frame, size, budget, exposure, every single thing about it. This is the biggest that I’ve ever done,” says Allen.
Odds are you’ve never even heard of Inman, Kansas. It’s situated in the central part of the state, but only boasts a population of just over 1,300 people. Until now, its identity was “a small town outside of McPherson,” but thanks to the larger-than-life mural, Inman has a new claim to fame.
“It took me six weeks, but I did take a lot of days off because of weather,” she says. “Between the wind and the rain, it just took time, but Mother Nature finally was like, ‘ Fine, she’s doing the mural, I’m just going to let her let her go.’ So, she finally let me finish it.”
Other than the weather, her biggest challenge in creating the giant mural was her lift.
“The speed of the lift was the biggest challenge,” she explains. “It just takes a long time to get up to the top or to get to where you want to go, and just maneuvering the lift and making it get to the right spot, it takes a lot of time.”
The process of actually painting the mural is no easy feat, and it’s one that starts with a digital drawing.
“Then, with a digital drawing, when I know the exact height and width of the building, then I can put those measurements onto my digital drawing,” says Allen. “I use a method called a ‘doodle grid.’ I basically just spray paint doodles all over the wall where I’m going to have like main parts of the drawings. And then I take a photo of those doodles and layer those over top of my digital drawing. So then I use that as a grid and I can go back in and with spray paint, I just sketch everything out and draw it so that I know where things are and then I can start painting.”
From the digital drawing of the mural on the left to the actual finished product on the right, it’s a vivid picture that highlights wheat harvest in Kansas. And the idea all started with one man.
“The picture of the farmer standing here and looking at all this, so many of us can drive up and say, ‘That is my dad. I can see my dad doing that.’ So, that just tells the whole story of what it’s all about,” Ron Regehr, with the Inman Museum, told U.S. Farm Report affiliate KWCH.
A man on a mission, he wanted to draw attention to the museum. So, he contacted Allen to bring his idea to life.
“Without him, it wouldn’t have been possible,” she says. “And with them adding onto the museum, he’s really hoping that this would give that a push, as well and, you know, help make that more possible, too.”
What started as a dream, has turned into a picture-perfect reality that’s now a new attraction for this rural Kansas town.
“I love painting, of course. I love doing the murals. But I think that it’s so rewarding when I finished the mural to be able to see how it has affected everybody else as well,” says Allen. “That to me is my favorite part, just knowing that so many people are seeing it and so many people are having a reaction to it and appreciating it. To me, that’s what makes it all worth it. “
Allen is already on to her next project. You can follow her work on her Facebook page.
