CHEYENNE — When people found out that artist Jordan Dean would paint 80-foot-tall murals on two of Cheyenne’s water towers, he heard all kinds of ideas about how to accomplish the feat.
Like standing on scaffolding or rappelling off the tank, leaving Dean to hang by a rope while painting the image of two giant, 60-to-70-foot-tall horses galloping over a hill.
Neither of those notions was logistically feasible for such a project.
What Jordan actually uses for the task is a device called a boom lift and a projector.
Two boom lifts, actually. One 60-foot boom is set up a little bit further back that projects the image he wants to paint on the water tank, and another 80-foot boom is what he stands on while painting.
The boom lifts were donated by Wyoming Rents, a gift that helps make the mural possible at all.
“The day rate for those is in the thousands,” Dean said. “So having those for a couple of weeks is huge, and it’s what makes this possible.”
It also means no swinging through the air like Tarzan from the trees for him.
That’s fine with him. Dean might be a human pen in the sky, but he prefers his feet to feel like they’re on solid ground.
“I’ve drawn (the horses) a few times by now,” he said. “And so, when I’m drawing, I’m right there with the tip of the pen. In some ways, being on the lift feels like I’m still just the tip of the pen.”
Unlike scaffolding, the boom lift can be raised and lowered as needed so Jordan can float his position to wherever he needs his “pen” — actually cans of spray paint — to go.
“I kind of get there at sunset and I put the projector up on a lift, and I stick it out in the air pretty far,” he said. “And, even still, it’s a big enough water tank that I have to do it in sections.”
After each section, he will get down from the lift and reposition the projection on the other boom as needed before getting back up on the other lift to continue his work, outlining shapes for the day crew to fill in with color.
“There was one of the nights that I was working on it where I had a goal to finish two horses, and one of them was very large,” he said. “So that night, I got to watch the sun rise from the boom lift, which is fun.”
Dean likes working late at night.
“In some ways, I’m a bit of a night owl,” he said. “I feel like it’s always peaceful and there’s no distractions. It’s kind of cool out there, and you get to see the city at night. No one is awake, and I’m just out there painting.”
It’s A Team Effort
During the day, Dean runs errands and catches up on other graphic design projects while his day crew comes along and fills in the areas he’s outlined with color.
The paint for water tanks is typically a commercial type designed to slough off anything that might stick to it. That means the tanks must be scrubbed vigorously before any new paint will stick.
It also means using the same type of paint that’s usually employed for water towers, which is not cheap. The paint costs $400 a gallon. And this pair of giant horses are going to take a lot of paint.
“You only have about an hour after you mix the paint up before it starts to harden and become solid,” Dean said. “And so, because of that I wanted to partner with (CHP Tank Co.) out of Cheyenne because they work with products like this and it’s such a huge project, there’s no way I can do it by myself.”
Dean’s part in the process is creating outlines with spray paint that are close to the colors he wants CHP Tank Co. to use to fill in the spaces he has defined.
“The spray paint, they are mostly scuffing off,” Dean said. “They can still see where the outline was. But they have to scuff off the surface enough so that it’s not glossy anymore, so the new product will adhere to it.”
At one point, Dean tried using a Sharpie to make the outlines. But the lines proved too thin and hard to see after the scuffing process was complete.
“They also kind of have a map of what all the colors will be, and they will reference that with the outlines that I put up at night,” Dean said. “So, they’ll be able to tell where the colors go.”
There are five shades of brown paint, two shades of blue paint, as well as a kind of cream color for the field, and other colors for the grass.
“Those five shades of brown are what makes the horse have kind of depth and feel full,” Dean said. “That makes it come to life more, which is fun.”
For the clouds, he’s using the tank’s already white color.
Once the basic color shapes have been filled in, Dean will go over the whole mural piece by piece, adding highlights and shading, as well as other fine details, particularly around the eyes and nose, but also including hair.
Coming Round The Mountain
The paint Jordan is using is rated to last at least 30 years, but he fully expects the murals to last longer than that.
“In life, all things fade,” he said. “But I remember a mural when I was a kid being painted on an aquarium in California. And I happened to see it last year, 30 years later, and it’s still there, and it’s still very cool. You can tell it’s 30 years old, so that’s kind of the nature of these things.”
It will be up to future generations whether to refresh the existing mural or just paint over it with a new image. But Jordan has chosen subjects that he hopes will also stand the test of time for Cheyenne.
“For this project, I was thinking about something that all of Cheyenne could look at — people from all walks of life, different demographics, different ages — and it would be appreciated by all, and they would feel that it belonged up there,” he said. “I wanted something everyone could relate to and feel it’s part of their town.”
Dean also wanted the hill the tanks were standing on to become part of the mural.
“So, then you kind of narrow things down to a handful of ingredients and things that are special to Cheyenne,” he said. “So it was like, ‘Oh, should we do trains, or should we do rodeo for Frontier Days? And should we do the Capitol,’ you know?”
But ultimately, Dean decided he wanted something that felt timeless, so he went back to what was here before modern things started coming along and changing the world.
“I grew up with horses here in Cheyenne, and Cheyenne has got the wild horse race,” he said. “And I think horses are beautiful creatures.”
He pictured giant horses rounding the top of the hill and knew that was the right image. He added a meadowlark, which is the state bird, as part of the scene.
“Those are ingredients that were here before Cheyenne was really developed,” he said. “So that was the goal, and that’s how all those pieces came together, and that’s where we ended up.”
Second Tank Next Year
The tank Dean is painting now is the city’s new one, which will remain empty until he’s finished to prevent any condensation.
“Once this one is finished, then they’ll fill the tank and empty the other one,” Dean said. “And so, we can paint that one probably next summer.”
That’s assuming enough money is raised for the project. Dean said that Cheyenne officials were insistent that no taxpayer money be used on the murals, so it’s down to private fundraising to make the tank murals a reality.
Dean’s plan for the other tank is an American Indian girl with a proud, confident, peaceful look about her, as well as some bison and some Indian paintbrush.
The word “Cheyenne” will be painted on one of the tanks in a manner similar to the Visit Cheyenne logo, a subtle reference to tourism.
Artists often like to stand back from their work to view it critically, making sure all the proportions line up as needed. Dean still does that, even though this is 80 feet tall. It just takes a little more effort.
He has to get down off the boom and walk a good distance away to do that.
“It’s become a habit as I drive by during the day to kind of look and see how things are going,” he said. “I will check on the guys and view it from the road and make notes to work on at night.”
Beyond Wyoming
The mural is about 20% complete, but progressing as quickly as weather allows, and will be complete soon, Dean said.
The project is the tallest Dean has done to date, though it’s not the first time the Cheyenne artist has tackled large murals.
His first, for example, was 60 feet tall and 80 feet wide. He’s also done several that are about 30 feet tall.
Jordan’s been getting asked to do more murals outside of Wyoming of late, taking his Western sensibilities far and wide.
“I’ve been working on a big mural project in Alabama, and I just have a couple days left on it,” he said. “I had to get back here to start the water tank project, but now that one is in a good spot and the guys have enough to work on for a few days, I’ll probably go to Alabama and finish that project.”
He’ll be back in Cheyenne to finish the water tanks before heading out to Maryland at the end of August or early September for another mural.
Dean credits a mural he painted in Cheyenne for an incoming trampoline park.
“There was a guy named Matt Hubbard who worked for the installation company,” he said. “And when he saw the murals I’d done on the walls, he said, ‘I’m gonna hire you someday.’”
A year later, Hubbard called Dean to come paint a mural for a group therapy clinic he was starting in South Carolina, and he called him up again when he opened a second location in North Carolina.
Word of mouth began to spread, bringing Dean work in other states as well.
“It’s taken off a little bit,” he said. “It will be fun to see where these projects take me in the future. I’m really grateful I get to do what I love for a living and help take care of my kids.”
Boom lifts and all.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
