When visitors drive into Cheyenne, city and arts officials want them to get an immediate sense of the area’s Western history and a feel for the city’s expanding commitment to public art.
They want a big splash, and that’s what they’re planning, commissioning two massive murals on the city’s two water tanks that overlook Storey Boulevard on the north side of the city. They hope the murals will become beacons for tourists and residents, celebrating the city’s Western heritage and history.
After a nearly two-month search, a committee made of representatives from Arts Cheyenne, Visit Cheyenne, city public works, Cheyenne City Council and state legislative officials have selected local artist Jordan Dean to paint the tanks, which sit side by side atop a hill.
Dean has created more than 20 murals including the multi-story “Bison Strumming Guitar” wall painting behind the Paramount Cafe downtown. The water tank project will be the largest he has undertaken, and he said it’s “very humbling,” but also an honor, to have been chosen to do such prominent work for Cheyenne, his home of more than 17 years.
One tank, an older one known as the Buffalo Ridge Tank, measures 66 feet in height and 115 feet in diameter, and the other — a newer tank known as the North City Tank — measures 88 feet tall and 107 feet in diameter. The task will require a lot of math, measuring, mixing and stenciling before the project even gets to painting, which Dean hopes to complete in about four weeks just in time for Cheyenne Frontier Days in mid-July.
“The painting will be heavy logistics,” he said. “It’s not finesse. It’s making sure we do all the right steps in the right order. It’s a fun challenge. I’m thrilled that my artwork gets to be that large.”
Horses And Bison And Meadowlark
While Dean hasn’t completely sketched out what the murals will look like, he knows the elements he wants. He envisions the murals blending into the hill and the sky. Every day, he picks up his daughter from Meadowlark Elementary School, and as he drives by the tanks, he said, “I keep picturing horses running over the hill. You want to feel them kind of stomping on the ground.”
He also wants to incorporate Bison and the meadowlark, both state animals, as well as plants of the prairie such as the Indian paintbrush, the Wyoming state flower.
“I also notice the geese in Cheyenne because we have a couple of lakes and we’re in kind of a prominent migratory pattern so there might be some geese in there,” he said. “We also can’t forget that we weren’t the first people here. There were native populations, and I would love to pay homage to them, too.”
The vision seems to fit with exactly what city, arts and business officials had in mind when they commissioned the project.
“I think it will just kind of create a literal beacon on top of the hill that says that you’ve arrived in Cheyenne, and this is where you’re at and here’s what you can expect to find,” said Desirée Brothe, executive director of Arts Cheyenne.
It’ll Take A Team
The project will be complicated given the tanks’ size, curvature and temperature of the siding, which fluctuates based on the water inside them. One of the reasons Brothe said Dean was selected was because he had specific plans on how to address all those issues and had already assembled a team of painters.
“They had already thought through the mechanisms of how to approach this project,” she said. “It requires specialty paint. You’re not just getting up there and painting because of the heating and cooling that the water tanks go through and some of the unique environmental concerns. It also requires epoxy base paint that has to be premixed, so his partnership with a paint company definitely helped.”
Dean said the project will be accomplished using boom lifts.
“We’ll end up using five different sizes through the course of the project,” Dean said. “The really big ones are also very expensive, but we only need them to get to the top.”
Expense is something not quite worked out, yet. The project is estimated to cost nearly $200,000, all of which is being raised privately over the next five or six months, Brothe said. A member of the project committee will spearhead the fundraising effort. Residents and businesses can make donations through Discover Cheyenne or Visit Cheyenne.
While Dean is not involved directly in the fundraising, he said he hopes to contribute to the effort in creative ways that might allow donors special access to see the work going on or to possibly acquire special prints of the mural artwork.
“I have some ideas on how to (fundraise) that would be super fun that would make the community feel like they’re part of the project as opposed to just handing over money,” he said. “It could come with some cool experiences.”
Justin George can be reached at justin@cowboystatedaily.com.
