(Riverton, WY) – Faded by time and Wyoming weather the 25-year-old retaining wall mural located on West Main Street will soon be covered and have a fresh new look.
The mural’s original artist, Robert Martinez, recently received a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council to redo it, which he plans to have completed before the first snow flies in the fall.
Martinez originally painted the mural in 1997 for the Raising Awareness through Media group at Riverton High School while he was working there as the Indian Education Coordinator.
“At first they asked me just to design the concept,” he said. “So, I designed a concept just around historical things in Fremont County.”
He was then asked to compose the underpainting for which he donated his time. The mural was always supposed to be full color. The high school students were going to color it, but time never allowed and the teacher in charge of the group moved on.
“Unfortunately, that group shut down so it never ended up being colored,” he continued.
For 10 years the mural went unscathed by vandals, but that came to an end in 2007 when it was damaged. Martinez was able to fix it but ever since then, he wanted to see it the way he had envisioned it – in full color.
As a full-time professional artist now, donating time and supplies to a 72.5′ long and 10.5′ tall mural just isn’t feasible.
“People in Riverton don’t, in my opinion, hold public art as important as it should be,” he noted.
For the last decade, he’s found himself in the position of wanting to do something with the mural but was unable to find funding until this year.
The new mural will highlight the Native perspective and will be inclusive of both the historical and modern community – both Native and non-Native.
“My hope for this mural is to foster better communication between everybody. With more communication, we can create positive change, positive outcomes, positive results for everybody in and around Riverton.” … “This is for the whole community.”
