Muralist Shawn Palek started in on his latest monumental artwork Wednesday, which will reproduce a 1953 Sinclair service station calendar on the backside of the Perry Oil Co. at 1223 Willis Ave.
“You’ll see me here for the new couple of weeks,” Palek said, “as long as it doesn’t rain.”
The idea for the mural came from repro station owner Joe Unger of Perry, who continues his steady series of improvements and additions to the Perry Oil Co. grounds at Third and Willis.
By the end of the day Wednesday, the image of the generic grease monkey was beginning to emerge. ThePerryNews.com respectfully suggests that Unger’s face be substituted on the mural for the mid-century advertising image in order truly to personalize the mural much as, for example, art patrons in the renaissance had their own faces added to the group of mourners in paintings of the deposition of Christ.
Palek’s mural will lure eastbound motorists and cyclists to stop and admire the post-war-era memorial to America’s love of automobiles and fossil fuels.
I have a building in Boone I would like a mural put on.