[Music] Be it a city or rural town, an outside wall of a garage, or the inside of the state capital, the very public art of murals are historically and currently a vibrant part of the culture of Kansas communities.

[Music] The history of murals in Kansas communities goes back decades.

In some cases they were advertisements.

Some were public works projects meant to bring hope in the Depression era, such as the post office mural in Goodland.

Then there are the illustrations of a long and sometimes turbulent history in the murals on the walls of the state capital building itself.

In recent years this public art form of murals has found a new life with a blend of artistry, history and culture in cities and towns of every size.

Just 18 miles east of the Cottonwood Ranch, the community of Hill City, Kansas has become home to a growing collection of these public postcards.

Don Rowlison caught up with the artist behind many of Hill City's murals, Layne Stafford, as he was adding some collegiate pride to a new building on the campus of Fort Hays State University.

Today we're talking to Layne Stafford, who is a Hill City native in Graham County, and we're at Fort Hays State University where he is actively, when he isn't being interviewed, painting a mural.

How did you get started with painting murals?

Did people ask you to do it and do they give you a subject that you need to paint or do you cooperate with them and work on the design?

Most of the time they give me like a list of ten things that are significant or things that they want somehow incorporated into the design.

And some of these are kind of historic.

To kind of tell the history of the area or historically represent the area.

Yeah, I mean a lot of things I've done in Kansas, you know, there's some staples in Kansas like wheat and sunflowers and you know metal arcs and things like that.

But then there's also like significant landmarks in towns.

Okay, I've seen your mural on the frontier stage in Hill City along Highway 24.

So give me an idea of how you did that and why you incorporated the objects that are in it.

Yeah, well they gave me a couple concepts.

They wanted something to do with film, you know, like a film reel and they wanted it really bright.

And then they said pick some things that are significant to Graham County.

And they gave me like two or three things and then I add a couple things.

So basically agriculture is important.

And then did the Art and Art Museum and then Nicodemus is a community in Graham County that's got a lot of historic meaning to it.

So yeah, that's kind of how we chose that.

And then we did Longfellow, the old Longfellow Middle School.

I probably could have put more in there, but we, you know, you know, I think about when I did that, I was like, man, I'm doing like five giant artworks in one because every film strip was like its own giant piece of artwork because they were big.

So yeah, you have any stories about these artworks of putting them together in the various communities on where to see because all Western Kansas, most people think in Western Kansas are all the same, but we are not.

Yeah.

There's one in Hill City, probably still my favorite one I've ever done.

It's it's says it's the ring net capital of the world.

I've had a lot of people ask me, are we really the ring net capital?

I said, well, I painted it on there.

So now we are.

So but yeah, well, one of the one of the funny things is I finished that right during the opening of pheasant season.

And I had like three hunters and all their hunting gear got out and wanted to get a picture in front of it.

So that was that was that was kind of a fun thing to have to see happen.

So so you're painting these in the community.

So it is considered public art.

Do you have any favorites that you've done so far?

Top one in Hill City would be the ring net capital of the world one and the one on the frontier stage says capture capture your moment.

That one's probably number two.

I did a couple in Rooks County that were fun projects with some different colors and stuff that in Palko and DeMar that turned out better than I thought they would.

You know, the first mural thing I did was indoors.

So I got a very false representation of what it's like to do outdoor work.

You know, you're dealing with like today, it's 50 degrees with probably a 10 degree wind chill and it's in the shade most of the day and it's on metal.

Two years ago I was painting on the side of a school building and it was the wall temperature was one hundred and like 19 degrees.

So and you know, you're up 20 feet up in the air, 30 feet up in the air on a on a on a lift.

And sometimes, you know, the wind's blowing a little bit more than you want it to be blowing.

And yeah.

And then and then sometimes the moisture sneaks up on you and it starts to rain out of nowhere.

You know, in Kansas, there's so many unknowns.

The one I did in Waukeene a couple of years ago, there was I'd finished I'd finished a little Christmas tree thing and I was like, all right, now time to move on.

And then out of nowhere, it just starts down pouring.

And I had to repaint the Christmas tree because it was like the wall was crying green paint all the way down.

One of the most important things public art does for people is it can be a I could I call it a catalyst to inspire people.

I and I've experienced that firsthand.

I was in in Hill City doing a sunflower sun mural that's right on the corner there of the highway.

And a guy walked by four or five times that week, never said anything.

And the last time he walked by, I was about finished, you know, several days later.

And he said, you know what, I don't paint.

I don't do anything creative.

But he said, I've watched this whole process.

And he said, I feel inspired to go do something like this, to go create something.

And so like, that's to me, that's what it's all about, like creating a creating a stirring in people to want to do something creative that can bring joy to other people.

Muralist Melanie Ryan has also brought her artistry to several communities across the state, but none more than her hometown of Larned.

So growing up here on Second Street, we had access to the pool and we would walk down the street barefoot and get stickers.

But it was always a safe community.

I always loved the fact that everybody knew you here.

There were parents that would take in kids and take care of them.

Growing up in track, parents that weren't my own would hold my blocks.

You know, that kind of community sense was just something I was so proud of.

But coming back here to my hometown to do murals has been a big thing because I wanted to showcase what we are here.

We're a historical site.

So a lot of my art that I do in Larned, I want to, yeah, one, acknowledge that the fort is here, acknowledge that the Santa Fe Trail is an important part.

And a lot of the murals that I've done will reflect that.

There's some that's going to show the, I like to call them the Buffalo Soldiers that were protecting those wagons.

So some of that art I'd like to bring in as well.

The Native Americans and the Buffalo Soldiers.

This right here is, you know, just good starts to let people know, hey, you can trust me to put up something you can be proud of no matter what it is, whether it's a design like this, which is just a basic greeting.

For the people that I encounter.

What they're wanting to see out of their murals is town pride.

So to show that, hey, we're not just surviving, you know, we want to thrive and murals let people know, hey, we're alive.

We're thriving.

This is, you know, fresh paint, fresh views.

We want you guys to be welcome.

So that's kind of the feel I'm getting is that, hey, we're alive.

We want to be more than just a surviving little community.

You want to thrive.

So what you're seeing now is there's no border around it, but that's coming.

But right now you can kind of get an idea of the just the pop and just, hey, you're welcome.

It's it looks like fresh flowers.

It's fresh paint.

It lets people know that Larned is alive.

So other murals that have popped up are you're going to see on Boot Hill in Dodge City.

What a sight that was.

Probably the highest I'd been.

So wearing harnesses and the articulating lift, you know, you learn how to use heavy equipment, but that was exciting.

Several in Great Bend.

I think I even added it up as to like almost 24,000 square feet of paint that has laid out there for public art and public art is huge right now.

So I'm glad to be on this train.

Well, the reactions when people OK, a lot of them will honk.

That's that's a good sign.

Some of them will just hold their phone up as they drive by.

That's always a good sign.

The reaction when it's actually coming to, you know, fruition, it's really it's exciting because heck, how many years has that been playing?

You know, so it's exciting and people are excited and I'm excited to show them.

Finished products.

In Salina, Kansas, the interest in public art has grown into a yearly festival, inviting artists from around the world to bring their skill and vision to the heartland of America.

My name is Travis Young.

I'm a co-founder of the Boom Salina Art Festival.

Which is a street art mural festival here in Salina, Kansas.

It actually started with a massive mural we did on one of the grain elevators with Australian artist Edo Van Helton.

And that was done in 2021.

And we had this idea of what do we do next, if anything at all.

And we thought about this festival idea.

During that time, there was sort of a major revitalization of this downtown area, which started making us think, well, how else can we create a vibe?

Can we create tourism and kind of sprucing up what generally is just the old brick wall and or kind of maybe a rough brick wall that doesn't necessarily look architecturally very nice.

And it made sense to kind of make these things canvases and bring in what we consider some of the best artists, not just here in the United States, but globally.

So we've had artists from France, from Finland, from Spain, from Portugal, from England, Canada, Australia.

So we just they come from everywhere, Switzerland as well.

And really, we pick them because they are the best at that craft.

There's not very many people who can paint on some of these scales.

They come here and it's completely unexpected to them, especially coming from an urban area where there's a lot of graffiti and the street art scene is a little bit more rough and tumble.

But to see something so manicured for them is different than they've ever seen before.

And they kind of come here and there's a sense of peace and they get a chance to talk to other artists.

It's a lot.

They always say it's calming to work here.

And I think they really are starting to understand Kansas hospitality.

That's one thing that they always mention is how nice and hospitable people are.

And they get treated very well.

And we also have the tie that binds us all together is definitely Martha Cooper.

She is a famous photographer who spent her entire life basically cataloging street art since the late 1960s.

I'm Martha Cooper.

I'm a photographer, documentary photographer, and I specialize in taking pictures of graffiti and street art.

And I'm here in Salina taking pictures of the Boom Mural Festival.

And this is my fourth year here.

She's great.

I'm here to paint.

My name is Crash.

Well, I was an art major in college and I also studied anthropology.

And the combination kind of led me to be interested in graffiti in New York City back in the early 80s.

And I began documenting the graffiti on trains in New York.

And I was I watched this kind of go from a New York City phenomenon to a worldwide art movement.

And Crash is one of the people that has definitely been instrumental in spreading it around the world.

When I was approached to do the mural, I always asked, you know, what the neighborhood, the people and when they told me it was going to be on the wall adjacent to a teen center.

So why not do something that kids can identify with, but also the parents or adults that they are surrounded by?

I figured an anime character and growing up in the 60s, I was privy to the early anime like Astro Boy, which has made sense.

And that's what this is about.

You know, painting should be fun.

Well, I think it's exciting because and I think Crash would agree we've done a lot on the East Coast and the West Coast.

And now we're just starting to see these murals go straight across the country.

But I do want to say, you know, in Salina, they're uncovering a wall here on the building that was painted in 1981.

It's his historic mural.

Yeah, you see that one.

Japanese Japanese artists came here.

And then when we looked up his name, we found out that he had painted murals all over the Midwest.

So this isn't something that's just suddenly springing up out of nowhere.

There is a long history in America.

One thing is that they they get to see it as they're going wherever they're going.

They don't have to go inside a museum.

They don't have to look and find a calendar where an art show is opening.

It's just going to be there.

Another thing is that it gives color to sometimes some very drab areas.

And and it's also it's a wonderful surprise that you're walking along and suddenly you see you notice a wall.

It's also that communal aspect, you know, where it is a community thing.

So whether the town is five thousand people or ten thousand people, you know, whatever it is, it's it's something that belongs to the people.

And they really react to it.

So it's quite surprising.

It shouldn't be surprising.

It shouldn't be surprising.

Art is art, you know.

But they also have a chance to watch these murals.

Yes.

In progress.

They can see how artists are painting, like how they lay out a wall, for example, or what, you know, whether they're using spray paint or bucket paint or brushes or whatever.

And I think it's probably inspired a lot of kids to go ahead and be artists.

Yeah, I think it has a positive impact on on people here, young people as well.

You know, for for me, I do see a lot of art going up and people being interested in it.

We also have a lot of local artists who have done a lot of painting here.

And actually, if you go to our website, BoomSolina.Art, we actually have a map that shows who the boom artists are, who local artists are, what the pieces, what the name of the pieces are.

So you can really see the scope.

We have over 40 in total.

Some are big, some are small.

Some are from our international artists and some are from our local arts.

Mindy Allen, she's from Junction City, met Mindy in our first Boom Festival.

And she was actually asking some very relevant questions to our artists panel.

And one really stood out to me is how do you go from a commercial artist to doing your own art?

And one of our qualifications is that this is what you need to do for a living.

This is your primary job.

And she's made it that.

Recently, it seems murals have become a lot more popular, especially in the smaller communities.

And I'm not exactly sure the reason why, but I think that I know there's a lot of funds available through grants.

But also, I think people are finally seeing the value and having art on their walls instead of having a plain wall with the paint peeling.

And it's not pretty to look at.

There's a lot of value in painting something, you know, art, putting some art there because people, people love to see it.

It helps people feel better when they see it.

It is just something that brings others joy.

They like it.

It's also a way to just sort of like make your community stand out.

People will drive several hours to a community that has a lot of murals or that maybe has a specific mural that they want to see.

Just to look at it in person.

Last year, I got to paint a grain elevator.

It was 100 feet tall.

It's very bright and colorful.

So you can see it from the highway.

And people got really excited about it.

And lots of people have driven there just to see it.

And because the thing about murals is when you see them in a picture, they're beautiful.

But then you see them in person.

And it's told it just looks totally different because because the size, the size is what makes them, you know, look so so cool, I suppose, you know.

But but yes, the one in Inman, the elevator really brought in a lot of extra traffic to their community.

And there is a man it takes.

Sometimes it just takes one person that really wants it to happen.

And if they are willing to put in the effort and do the footwork and everything that needs to be done to get the mural accomplished, because you've got to get approval through the city for some of it.

Sometimes you've got to talk to, you know, find the right wall, talk to the owner, make sure everything is, you know, is going to be OK.

And you won't run into complications.

And it's a lot of work.

But one man named Ron Regere, it was a dream that he had that he wanted to have it painted on the side.

And so it's something amazing that he did for that community, you know, and not only that community, but communities around it.

Because like I said, people really love seeing it.

The one thing that I do in all of my murals is I really like bright colors.

I mean, people love seeing the colors.

It makes you happy and it's fun to paint with them.

And I just to me, the brighter, the better.

So I think that's a big style.

You know, for me, if somebody were to describe my style, it would be bold, bright colors, lots of color.

There's a lot of people that walk by down here and I hope that when they see it, it makes them happy, makes them feel good.

I mean, that's why, like I said, that's why I use the bright colors.

I really just love being able to do murals because I like to be able to.

I want people to see them and smile.

Well, I hope that this, you know, wave of murals and having everybody so excited to have them in their community just continues.

Especially in smaller communities, in rural communities, I think like the value has been seen as far as what like public art can do with those communities.

I mean, I think if you have strong public art in small towns, I think it can be an economy boost to be small towns, too, because they stop and they see the murals and they're like, well, let's buy lunch here.

Let's go, you know, fill up our gas tank or let's stop at a store here.

So that's good.

And we need that in Kansas.

So people will stop at the small towns and go through and see the difference in them.

And that and the mural art kind of depicts this.

We get a lot of comments from local businesses and restaurants that, oh, there was somebody from Georgia, there was somebody from California, there was somebody from New York that was driving through and they made a point to stop here.

If you're going to spend ten thousand dollars or whatever to have somebody come and paint a mural for you, why not paint something unique or different that people are going to drive by and stop and want to take their picture in front of and be like, you know, and think this is different.

This is really cool.

Describes my attention.

I want to tell other people about it.

I want to take a picture and share it on Facebook.

I just feel like it's a better use of your money to do something that maybe is a little unique and different from every other town around you.

I think it has a lot of different impact on people, the different the different murals.

Everybody seems to have their own favorites.

There doesn't seem to be a collective.

This is the best one.

I'm just impressed with the skill, the skill to do some of these things on such a scale.

Is is really a hard to believe to have that capability to see something on paper and be able to project that onto a large surface.

I think for me, that's what impresses me about about this work.

We're all given talents.

We're all given gifts.

And if you just keep that for yourself, nobody benefits.

Anything that you create that has I think if you could create something that outlives you and your time on Earth here, I think that's a legacy.

I'm in a I'm in one point no longer be here.

And at one point, maybe the artwork on the wall won't be here.

But like if that is done enough to inspire someone else to take the rope and or take the baton and do the next thing, then that's what that's what matters to me.

I mean, I hope it doesn't go away.

I hope it just continues and and lasts.

And when the murals that were painted now fade away or start to peel, I hope they replace them with new ones or have them repaired.

So I just hope it keeps on going and doesn't go back to just plain walls.

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