Repainting the Wall of Fame

~ The project, like the Mississippi River Tales mural, will need sponsorships.

Chicago-based artist Thomas Melvin isn't done with Cape Girardeau's floodwall yet.

After leading a team of artists in painting the Mississippi River Tales throughout 2004 on the floodwall, Melvin is now ready to tackle the Wall of Fame.

On Thursday Melvin visited the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri to unveil his plan for reworking the wall and its portraits of famous people with ties to Missouri.

"Compositionally and in the intent it will be the same," said Melvin. "We're just adding another level and detail to the portraits."

The Wall of Fame was originally designed and painted in 1995 by Margaret Dement, now the interim executive director of the Arts Council. Portraits of Rush Limbaugh, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Harry Truman, Mark Twain and others make up the 500-foot long wall.

When Dement painted the mural over a decade ago she was limited by budgetary constraints. Instead of painting full, detailed portraits, basic line-based drawings were painted over a projection of Dement's drawings.

Now Dement said the wall will finally have the look she had always hoped for.

"I'm so excited I can't stand it," Dement said.

The reasons for the improvement at the present time are twofold: Melvin's prominence from his work on the Mississippi River Tales will help bring in sponsorship and the current Wall of Fame mural is aging, said Tim Blattner, president of the River Heritage Mural Association.

With an estimated cost of $85,000 to $90,000 sponsorship will be key, said Blattner. More than half the amount will needed to be raised through sponsorship, he said.

Without sponsorship the Mississippi River Tales mural would never have been possible, either.

"We're optimistic we can get the same support we did before," Blattner said.

Ten sections of the mural will be offered for sponsorship at $5,000 each. Sponsors will receive recognition by having their names posted on reader boards in front of the sections they sponsor.

The Missouri Wall of Fame as it looks today

The work will involve removing the current paint by sandblasting and then transferring the paintings on Melvin's canvas to full-scale drawings, then onto the wall. Given the tight space between this section of the wall and the railroad track running on its western side the mural should be a challenge, said Melvin.

"It's not easy to size a figurative portrait to that scale," said Melvin. "You have to rely on your drawings when your nose is up against the wall."

Melvin has worked since just before Christmas from pictures of the current Wall of Fame and some of the original photographs used by Dement for the portraits.

The artist plans on using a team including Cameron Pfiffner and Marian Voinea -- two artists who work at Melvin's Chicago studio and assisted with the canvas paintings -- along with some local help, including Dement.

Blattner said with any luck work should begin by as early as May or June, but the timeline depends on when the sponsorships start coming in.

Melvin hopes work can be done in just a couple of months once work begins.

The project means Melvin and his artists will once again spend a lot of time away from Chicago. But he doesn't mind spending it in a town that has become like a second home.

"I'm looking for a place to live for the time we're here," he joked.

Anyone interested in sponsorship can call Blattner at 334-3288 or Freck Shivelbine at 335-8862.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182