Co-workers in Salina use free time to collaborate on Kansas road landscape mural
Two co-workers used their time away from work this year to collaborate on a new piece of art in downtown Salina, adding to the growing mural collection in the city.
When Eric Montoy was commissioned by The Garage to transform a wall behind the automobile museum from a bland, painted brick surface, into something worthy of looking at, he knew that photographer and fellow Vortex employee Tanner Colvin would be the perfect person to help him make his vision possible.
"Tanner's out (taking photos) when he doesn't have to be," Montoy said.
Colvin's history of taking photos of things like weather and other landscapes along rural roads in the state was the person to approach about it.
"He has a library of things like sunsets (he's taken)," Montoy said.
The two have also helped for the past two years with the Boom! Street Art and Mural Festival, so they have gotten experience with working on larger scale, outdoor projects.
Showing Kansas as more than a flat landscape
One of the things that Montoy wanted to convey with this piece was how beautiful Kansas can be.
"The challenge to me was that (people perceive) Kansas as so flat," Montoy said. "So, I was looking for something that had a little more elevation to it, and Tanner nailed it."
The mural itself is actually a composite of two different photos that Colvin sought out to create what would look like a beautiful sunset in front of a rural highway.
"The top photo was taken at Marty Bender (Nature) Trails, for the sunset," Colvin said. "The bottom photo was taken just east of Wilson Lake. A road that goes between Wilson Lake and Sylvan Grove."
Timing and location was everything for Colvin to get the perfect shot, and he said the sunset shot in particular almost didn't happen.
"I almost gave up on that one," Colvin said. "I'd walked around Marty Bender with the sunset and was taking a few photos and started walking out. Then I turned around one last time and (there the shot was)."
Michelle Peck, executive director for The Garage, said the wall, was something the museum wanted to make stand out to those enjoying a beer or conversation on the outdoor patio, which is just across the alley from the mural.
"We needed that wall to look open," Peck said.
While he had worked on murals before, Montoy said this was one of the more challenging pieces he's done, as the wall was full of different obstacles to work around, such as a door, utility meter boxes, storm gutters and more.
"I learned from these guys at Boom that you just pretend like none of that is there," Montoy said. "You just paint, wrap around it and make it all disappear."
A lengthy process to paint a mural for The Garage
The mural itself was not something that came together overnight.
"It was about a month and a half from start to finish, but I didn't work on it straight," Montoy said.
As art isn't his day job, Montoy said he would find times to paint before or after work during the summer.
"It was four hours here or four hours there," Montoy said. "(I would) see it's not blowing 35 mph that day (and go out to paint)."
More: Here's how much money Salina is committing in effort to change Denver flight schedule
This was the first time that Colvin had collaborated in this way, and he liked seeing the process as it came together.
"From my perspective is was very interesting to see someone take my work (and turn it into something else)," Colvin said. "Both of us learned from the Boom! artists and to see (Montoy) take aspects of what he learned and put it into that was really cool."
See this collaborative art piece behind The Garage
The mural that Montoy and Colvin collaborated on can be seen by the public behind The Garage, 134 S. Fourth St.
The mural itself is on the east wall of FileSafe Security, 135 S. Fifth St. and the easiest way to access it is through the public parking lot along Fifth Street just south of Iron Avenue.
This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina downtown has another mural, the work of two of the city's own
