The Murals of Dothan, Alabama

In our latest drive south, we settled in for a few days in the small city of Dothan, Alabama. In the southeast corner of the state, Dothan isn't known as a normal tourist stop. But it was the right distance between places we wanted to be, so we went searching for things to do. In that search we found some of the best murals we have ever seen in their historic downtown. Denisa is standing in front of this wall, just to show the massive size of this mural sponsored by a local church.

We got a map of the different murals that are painted on the brick walls of buildings within a seven block area. This mural, commemorating a riot over a new tax that took place in Dothan in 1889, was painted right on a building on the corner of Main Street.

Most of the murals commemorate something about this section of Alabama, known as the Wiregrass area. This three-part mural pictures the four industries of the area, but we could only fit two of them into a single photo. You can barely see 6-foot-tall Mark standing in the lower left corner, dwarfed by the ten-foot-tall cotton bole in the mural.

Mark thought this mural was interesting, mostly because we didn't have to pose in front of it. The artist painted a passerby admiring the mural in the lower right corner.

But our favorite murals were those depicting the animals of the wiregrass area of Alabama.

The detail was incredible, and on such a large scale!

Just in case the detail is lost in the picture above, we took one closer that showed the shading on the beak and the life-like eye. It is amazing this work of art is on a cinder block wall instead of on a canvas.

Mark stood in front of this big Tom turkey, that is a little bigger than the last ones we saw in Oklahoma at his parents' house.

We were glad we happened to drive by this street and saw our favorite mural, because it wasn't on the chamber of commerce list. Then we realized that it wasn't on the list because it was too new. In fact, it is a work in progress, with just outlines of the next animals for the wall.

We were hoping that we would see the mural progress during our three-day stay, so we purposefully drove back downtown on our last day. We were so glad to see the artist at work on the bob cat!

He had pictures taped on the wall to inspire him with the details, and he was building the coats of paint necessary to make the lifelike animals we had enjoyed so much. We talked to Eddie Leroy for some time, finding out that this was the first of three days that it usually takes to complete one of these animals. His work schedule is based on the weather, so he probably wouldn't be back for the rest of this rainy week. Eddie's usual medium is smaller animal paintings, and he prides himself on making them look like they are photos. But today he is using a special paint used for outdoor murals. Denisa could have stood here all day watching him paint and asking him questions!

But we recognized that we were slowing his progress and breaking his concentration. So we pulled ourselves away with this final picture. 

We'd love to circle back through Dothan to see his finished picture, knowing that the bobcat would look much like the photo taped on the cinder wall today. In fact, we'd love to see all the other animals he will paint to fill this blue wall that continues another 40 feet down the sidewalk. Good job, Dothan, Alabama!