For a long time, the building behind Trapnell-Tomlinson Co. in Metter, Georgia, had just a blank wall on the east end that could easily be seen from a major thoroughfare for the community. Owner Pernal Franklin has long envisioned having a mural on the wall that drew attention not just to his store, but to the community as a whole. He was just unsure of how to proceed.
“I could not come up with someone to do it, nor did I know what to include in the painting,” he says.
Metter Middle School art teacher Kelly Brockway had a vision in mind for such a project. Once Franklin shared his thoughts, Brockway began developing the idea. “Using an old post card as a reference, we wanted to use our local slogan, ‘Everything’s Better in Metter,’ to tell a story about our wonderful little town that God has blessed us with,” Franklin says.
Once Brockway established a design for the project, she laid the mural off in squares and had some of her art students assist her in laying out and painting the mural.