HEART OF CLARKE Wall Mural at Grove Hill, AL

The “Heart of Clarke” wall mural is located beside the mini-park at the Courthouse Square in Grove Hill, AL. It was painted by local artists, Johnna Bush and Sharon Dozier. In 2007, The Grove Hill Arts Council approached Johnna Bush about painting the mural. The building wall where the Arts Council wanted the mural was 92 feet long. The size of the mural would be 16 feet by 92 feet. Johnna had never undertaken a project of this magnitude. Her first task was to decide on the theme for the mural. After much consideration, she decided to create a mural that exemplified the rich timber and wildlife heritage of Clarke County. She then created three canvas paintings that, when laid end-to-end, were proportionate to the dimensions needed for the wall mural. Johnna then traced the three canvas paintings using clear plastic. The next task was to get these traced images onto the building wall. This was done at night. An overhead projector was placed on the back of a pickup truck and the traced images were projected onto the wall. The images were then marked on the wall using chalk. The pickup was moved back and forth down the wall until the complete image of the mural had been marked. Next, Johnna and Sharon Dozier started painting the wall mural. By this time, the wall mural had become a community project. Local spectators came daily to observe and to offer suggestions. Johnna and Sharon began painting the wall mural using scaffolding but they quickly realized that this was not going to work. A local contractor then allowed them to use a bucket lift. After learning how to operate the bucket lift, Johnna and Sharon then spent the next six weeks maneuvering around on the wall painting the nural. The total time from when the Arts Council asked Johnna to paint the wall mural until its completion was between 3 and 4 months. Provided are photographs that include close-up shots of some of the scenes on the mural.