Saturday, June 10, 2023

114 West Elm Street
Graham, NC 27253
Ph: 336.228.7851

From the publisher of The Alamance News: Come see new mural taking shape in Graham

If you’re in Graham, over the next week or so, come by the news office to see the new mural which is being painted on our 114 West Elm Street office front.

Graham artist Courtney Talley, a recent graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, is busy painting a “Greetings from Graham, North Carolina” mural, with historic city locations embedded in the letters.

Similar to “greetings from” murals in towns and cities, large and small across the country, it will be intended as a spot for tourists and others to chronicle their time in Alamance County’s county seat.

So far, the mural is taking shape as an outline, with color to be added in the coming days.

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P.S. Please don’t disturb or distract the artist as she concentrates on completing her (very large) canvas.

– Tom Boney, Jr., Publisher, The Alamance News

Here’s a look at the evolving progress and a sneak peek draft of the final look.


The beginning (a blank wall):

Many a news subject has had his and her photo taken in front of what has for decades been a blank wall on the right front of the office building in downtown Graham.  Here the wall had already been primed.

The outline:

Saturday evening (until well after midnight), Courtney used a projector to show the final image, which she then used to pencil an outline of the final look.

Starting the painting:

Monday, Courtney began painting the outline of mural, which is continuing on Tuesday.

End of the first day (Monday afternoon): 

End of the second day (Tuesday afternoon):

Immediately below the mural is information on Graham’s newspapers: The Alamance Gleaner which published between 1875 to 1961, when it was purchased by Tom Boney, Sr., the publisher of The Alamance News, which had begun publication in 1939. Boney Sr. bought the paper in 1956; the current publisher bought the paper in 1990.

Wednesday’s progress:

End of Thursday, May 25, 2023:

 

Sneak peek at the final look:

Here’s a look at Courtney’s final draft of the mural. The letters highlight some of Graham’s historic landmarks, such as the Sesquicentennial clock, the Nicks Building, Wrike Drug Store, “Elmhurst” (formerly the home of Captain James N. Williamson and Mary Elizabeth, and now used by Bank of America), a trolley car from the turn of the century, and the Graham Cinema. Also depicted is the Historic Court House.  North Carolina’s state flower, the dogwood, and state bird, a cardinal, are to be shown.

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