The Mother Myth of Route 66, located at Phoenix Avenue and San Francisco Street, tells the story of U.S. Highway 66. This mural was painted in 2013 by artists RE Wall and Margaret Dewar of Mural Mys Universal. The mural, which has drawn thousands of people to Flagstaff each year from its giant neon sign to its all-Indian powwow, chronicles the history of the highway from its construction in the 1920s to its decommissioning in the 1980s. Each story is telling.

The project was started by the city as a specifically Route 66-themed mural on what used to be a major transit link on the freeway before it was rerouted north of the railroad tracks in Flagstaff.

Wall and Dewar were living in Phoenix when they submitted their mural design, but when they were chosen as artists, they packed everything they owned into a truck and headed to Flagstaff.

“We put everything into it. We literally went bankrupt as hell, and when we got the project and we got the job, we were so happy,” Wall said.

For five months, the two lived in their car, painstakingly hand-painting the mural almost every day.

The final design came about through hours of research and community engagement. Dewar said she and Wall go to the library to pick the brains of archivists and talk to locals around town who have stories about the highway. Dewar even remembers a Flagstaff logger approaching her while she was working on the mural and correcting her about the logging details she had depicted in her first strip.

“This mural was really informed through a community-driven process, and we felt that was actually very important,” Dewar said. “We spent as much time as possible talking to people and trying to get their stories heard. That helped us find our place in Flagstaff.”

Mural Mouse was inspired to name the mural “Mother Miss,” based on the highway’s nickname, the Mother Road, and its somewhat mythical glory. Dewar describes how the freeway became a symbol of the American Dream, even though it was a precarious lifeline for poor towns and a reminder of the exploitation of indigenous cultures along its route. Taka explained.

The artists tell the often overlooked stories of roads through images large and small, such as Indigenous icons scattered among the neon signs of a '50s scene, or dilapidated businesses behind the road's 'Road End' signs. Tried to get attention. The last strip.

The images in the first two strips show the period from the 20s to the 40s and highlight the hardships faced by different peoples at the time the road was built. The first panel depicts a black man paving a road to bring awareness to the fact that most road workers were people of color. Next to him, a child can be seen driving a car with his family inside, illustrating the desperation many people feel in search of a better life. Finally, next to the car is a depiction of a sheep kept by indigenous peoples, disrupting military operations on the road, which was noticed and respected during wars and highway construction. Wall said it metaphorically represents the indigenous people's desire to live.

“This was our effort to create a balanced mural that depicts the workforce that made it happen,” Wall said.

After five long months of painting and falling in love with Flagstaff's community and history, Mural Mouse completed the project just before the winter of 2013. Flagstaff remained their home for several years afterward, and their imprint on the community can be seen through various murals. Around the city.

Skye Black has known for some time that she wanted to contribute her work to Flagstaff's Mural Gallery, and she did just that nearly nine years ago when she painted the state's largest mural. Completed at the age of 23, The Sound of Flight was the artist's first large-scale project, covering his 4,500 square feet on the left side of the Orpheum Theater.

The idea for the mural had been with Black for several years before it was painted, but it began to materialize when the 20-year-old artist brought the idea to family friend and theater co-owner Chris Scully. Sitting together on the couch during a birthday party.

“It’s hard to imagine myself at that young age, but I was ready,” Black said. “I just wanted to work really hard. I think that's what it really takes to set yourself apart, especially as an artist.”

With Scully's permission and the support of the community, Black began work on the mural with the help of Mural Mouse, whom he met while painting Mother Miss.

Together, the three-person team raised approximately $100,000 for the project through donations, sponsorships, and grants. The project took him over two years, and the trio painted each year from spring to fall. They worked on the mural almost every day, usually from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., or as long as there was daylight. During that time, Black also returned home and spent much of his time painting other pieces for art shows.

“It was ambitious, but working with Sky meant he was going to make it happen,” Dewar said. “That was really cool. You know, he wasn't going to drop the ball.”

From a vibrant flock of birds taking off from a grand piano to a statue of the Thinker atop the Grand Canyon, the final mural brings together several scenes, bringing even more artwork to Flagstaff's Mural Gallery We achieved Black's goal.

“There are still dozens of photos on the Sound of Flight mural, and people stop to look at it and stand in front of it to take high school photos and wedding photos. There are people posing. We've seen full weddings all over the world,” Black said. “It’s great to see people still appreciate it as they pass by.”

Effie Leroux's Veridic Gardens

Effie Leroux's Veridic Garden spanned the curved walls of what is now Diablo Burger on Heritage Square and was one of Flagstaff's first public murals. This piece was painted by Joe Soren over his 14 months and completed in 2000.

Soren is an internationally renowned artist whose work has been published in prestigious magazines such as The New Yorker, Time, and Rolling Stone, and exhibited in galleries across Europe.

Soren described his art style as being like a failed realist artist who made paintings that people liked. And although he has a distinctive look with big-headed characters and muted colors, he approaches all his paintings without a planned design. Instead, he lets the story discover and surprise him with each stroke.

“I want it to be an adventure,” Soren said. “I want to change even at the very end.”

This was his technique for creating Effie Leroux's veridical garden. Mr. Soren approached the project wanting to paint a garden scene, but he said he had no idea of ​​the characters or environment until he painted it.

Three of the characters in his final design represent his children. The little girl in the oversized shirt on the right side of the mural is his daughter, and his son is depicted twice because of how much he has grown over the course of Soren's painting. He is the boy wearing bright red clothes, and he is also the boy on the left side of the mural holding a jar of fireflies.

A book was also written about the mural's main character, Effie Leroux, who sits by the red table in the center of the painting. Soren handed the character over to writer Matthew Hall, who created a fictional story based on Soren's designs.

Soren is now internationally acclaimed for his work, and Effie Leroux's Veridic Garden is one of Flagstaff's most famous murals, but its creation had humble beginnings.

Soren created his first set of murals in 1992, nearly a decade before Effie Leroux's Veridic Gardens was painted. While he was attending NAU to earn a bachelor's degree in fine arts, he recalled a professor asking him one day if any of his students were interested in a mural project commissioned by the owners of the Old Town Shops building. As the only student who showed his interest, Soren went to meet the owner, and even though he brought no examples of his own work, he was hired for the position.

Soren then painted six western-themed murals overlooking North Leroux Street based on historic photographs of Flagstaff. That work led to a friendship with the owner, and eight years later Effie Leroux's Veridic Gardens was founded.

But what neither of them knew was that when Soren was hired for the first project, the building's owner had mistaken Soren for another, more famous artist. This misunderstanding was not discovered until several years after the completion of Veridic Gardens.

“When it came to me, like 20 years later, when I had already painted another mural, I said, ‘Well, I have to say, you gave me a chance and you trusted me. You didn't know my art, you didn't even see my art,'' Soren said. “And he said, 'I saw that too, I saw what you were doing at Scholastic, and it was really cool,' and I was like, 'No, that's not me, that's what it is. I was like, “I was like an art hero in our class.'' ”

A misunderstanding with the building owner led to Soren's first art job. Without it, Effie Leroux's Veridic Garden may not exist today in Heritage Square.

The True Blue NAU mural on North Leroux Street brings NAU pride and fun to downtown Flagstaff.

The project was started by the NAU Foundation, university alumni and downtown business owners, and Joe Cornelius, also known as Mural Joe, was commissioned as the painter in 2012.

The mural was hand-painted by Cornelius over six weeks. Its creation is documented by Cornelius on his YouTube channel, muraljoe, where he posts painting instruction videos. True Blue's mural video includes clips of him painting and interacting with community members and his NAU students.

Cornelius worked with Brian White, an NAU alumnus who owned the university's apparel store downtown, to create a mural design centered on NAU's culture and traditions. Iconic scenes include football games at the J. Lawrence Walk-Up Skydome, giant lumberjacks chopping down trees, students walking in the homecoming parade, and people strolling around Old His Main, the university's oldest building. It's a feature. Some of the characters are based on local residents, such as the bespectacled man painted on the right side of the parade who is a local doctor and NAU supporter.

“I think a work of art is only as good as how useful it is to the people who see it,” Cornelius said. “So for me, enjoyment is important.”

One of the ways Cornelius incorporated fun into his murals was by making them interactive. While the work was being done, people enjoyed taking pictures with the life-sized cheerleaders and football players on the left side of the wall, he said.

“That's probably the best thing about the mural because it's interactive, taking pictures and making it look like you're inside the mural,” Cornelius said. “Maybe the whole mural should have been more like that.”

Another interactive aspect of this mural is found in the various Arizona creatures placed throughout the painting for passersby to search for and find.

Cornelius said there are about 17 animals intentionally hidden throughout the design, including skunks, mountain lions, deer, crows and coyotes.

“I hope people see it.” [the mural] Take it easy,” Cornelius said. “Not as a masterpiece, but as people representing the university and having fun.”