George Menser adds another mural to Meyersdale Public Library's main room
MEYERSDALE ― Community member George Menser is at it again, bringing his artistic talents to the Meyersdale Public Library.
Menser has installed his second mural contribution to the library for patrons to enjoy.
"My mother (Helen Beal) was a prolific reader and genealogist at the library," he said. "Mom said 'I love the library. We did a lot of work for it. Do what you can to make sure the library stays alive.' That's what prompted the large mural."
It's been almost 20 years since he painted a large mural for the children's section.
"It took a lot of planning to get that thing ready. It took almost six months to do," Menser said. "My son, Keith, helped me. We were coming in every Saturday afternoon and Sunday, donating our time. It made me feel good that he assisted."
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This year's mural promotes the types of books the library has. Menser said he went to the library board to get approval for the project.
"Joe Renzi got the board together and they approved it," he said. "I had all the drawings laid out. The question was how big each drawing would be and how to break it apart. What books should I focus on?
"I broke it down into six ― western, mystery, pirates, Civil War, Rosie the Riveter and space. I wanted to pick the ones most people would be familiar (with)."
Menser said the pieces are painted using oils on aluminum panels. It took between four and five hours to complete once he was ready to paint each panel. In total, each panel took eight hours to put together, he said.
Menser started in September and had them done by the end of January. Then he came in to hang them with the help of Sam LaRue. They were attached in a way they can be removed if he needs to take the panels down for some reason.
Easter eggs in paintings
Menser said many artists hide "Easter eggs" in their work. The eggs are something hidden in the painting by the artist that people don't immediately see unless they really look for it. His is a dragon.
"A lot of artists do that," Menser said. "Everybody sees it but nobody will figure out what it is. There are 12 or 13 dragons in the large mural."
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History of mural projects
Painting murals is something Menser likes to do. This is his fourth one. He did a fairly large flight line scene for his maintenance squadron at Altus Force Base in Oklahoma.
"It was salvaged by a civilian worker at the base after it was removed from the squadron's administrative office on the flight line," Menser said.
The second mural project was an 8-foot-by-22-feet scene of the Grand Canyon in the waiting room at the base hospital at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona.
"Chris Lubke and I designed and painted it," Menser said. "I don't know the status of that one. For that one, we had to get permission from the Arizona Highways Magazine to use their photographs for reference."
He's not done yet
Menser said he has the potential to do more panels to add to this one, or he'd really like to paint a very large dragon to cover several walls above the bookshelves of the library.
Terri Foster, library director, said she appreciates his mural projects. "It's wonderful. It really brightens up the room," she said.
Madolin Edwards can be reached at medwards@dailyamerican.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Local artist highlights book topics in his mural projects at library
