Print Version
E-mail This StoryMaxey Drake gazes from under her umbrella at what has become of Celina since she and her husband owned a pharmacy in the early decades of the last century.
Artist Lance Hunter has given her a permanent home in modern Celina. She is a main figure in the mural Hunter and his wife, Sylvia Nitti, are painting on the side of the Gunter Rural Water building on Pecan Street.
Hunter was commissioned by the Main Street Program to paint the mural. He and the board members decided on a photo of Pecan Street taken in the 1930s to use as the main design of the mural. He thought the mural should have a person or two in it. A photo of Drake taken earlier in the 20th century was found. She became the dominant figure in the mural.
Hunter and Nitti just returned from a yearlong sabbatical in Europe where they created and studied art. He teaches art at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma when he is not creating public displays.
"I really enjoy painting. When you can put four or five strokes on a wall and have the illusion of a person standing there, there's magic there," said Hunter of his Celina mural.
He knows how to do just that. His series of murals in Lufkin have won the president's award for best public improvement project from the Texas Main Street Association.
He said one of the reasons he's enjoying painting the Celina mural is that the vast majority of the structures in the photograph he is using are still there. At one point when they were looking at the light fixtures in the 1930s Pecan Street his wife looked over at the museum and Cherry's Antiquibles and noticed that one of the light posts was still standing. That made their job of getting the light post details correct much easier.
He added that one of his goals in painting from a photograph was to make it as historically accurate as possible and still make it visually interesting.
Main Street board members are pleased with his work. Their efforts to have a mural painted in the downtown area began three or four years ago. Board members Jane Willard, Sue Howard and Carolyn Harvey went to Lufkin to view Hunter's murals there.
Once the artist was chosen they obtained permission from Gunter Rural Water to use the side of their building as a canvas. Gunter Rural Water has paid to prepare the wall for painting and for lighting once the mural is finished.
The legend on the finished mural will contain the phrase "Preserving our past."
"This attracts people to be more interested in Celina and gets people interested in the town's history," said Main Street board member Carolyn Harvey.
The Main Street Program is paying about $12,000 for the mural on Pecan Street. It should last 12 to 15 years. Sue Howard said that their research showed that the cost is standard for commissioning a mural.
Main Street plans two other murals for the downtown area. Another project is to adorn the AT&T building with giant blowups of historical photographs. One problem with that project is that they are having difficulty in finding out who at AT&T is authorized to give permission for the photographs to be put on the building.
Another major Main Street project is the renovation of the small downtown park. It is being completely refurbished with a new basketball and tennis court, new playground equipment, and the addition of a gazebo. Children are already using the basketball court while workers are finishing the park project.
"We're trying to tell the story of Celina," said Howard of the mural project.
The Main Street Program will hold a daylong workshop at city hall on July 22.
