Weather curbs Walldogs work
The rain interrupted, but ultimately didn't stop, the Walldogs from painting murals in downtown Butler on Thursday.
Artists from around the world began painting 10 murals representing Butler's history on walls around the city. However, most were forced to stop late morning and stayed inside for a few hours to wait out the rain.
“The rain slowed things down today,” Pat Collins, executive director of the Butler Historical Society, said Thursday afternoon. “It's not raining heavy and some of (the Walldogs) are already back to painting. We'll just handle the rain as it comes.”
Most of the muralists anticipated the rain, and shut down their setup about a half-hour before it started.
Brett Mason, of Pontiac, Ill., is assisting on the Bantam Jeep on 123 W. New Castle St. He has dealt with rain during a Walldogs event before, and was not worried by the weather.
“We use acrylic, water-based paint, high-grade paint,” he said. “It's not your typical house paint. It's very, very durable once it dries. Once (the wall) has a chance to dry, we're fine.”
Walldog J.H. Long, of Mont Alto, Pa., said humidity can be an issue.
“The humidity can get on the walls and it can cause the paint to bubble and not dry as fast,” he said. “Sometimes when you're painting multiple colors you need one color to dry completely before you can go over with another color.”
Mason said that if the rain were to continue throughout the day, the muralists simply would get out spotlights and work at night.
“We have some power at the site we're working at, so we'll set up some lights and keep going,” he said.
Mason's sense of calm is shared by the project leaders.
“They're ready to handle whatever they need to,” he said. “They're the ones that are running the project, and you just kind of take their lead.”A few of the artists weren't slowed by the weather. Chris and Ginger Lee Lovelady, who live in Tallahassee, Fla., and work out of Thomasville, Ga., worked right through the raindrops.They're painting the Pullman-Standard railcar on the tier parking garage on Vogely Street, and strapped a beach umbrella on their paint bucket to keep it dry.“It's weird, kind of, because our wall isn't that wet because of how the rain is falling,” said Ginger Lee Lovelady. “We're pushing through it. It's not raining hard enough, so we're fine. (The paint) dries pretty fast, too, so we don't have to worry about that.”Collins said the rain or other circumstances may cause some artists to finish on Sunday rather than Saturday, as initially planned.“They don't always get done (on time),” Collins said. “We said that from the beginning. Anybody that wouldn't get done would go ahead and do it Sunday.“Some of them are already planning on staying a couple of extra days. It's their vacation.”Mason, for one, is enjoying the event like a vacation.“This is almost like a festival-type event for everybody,” he said. “We see people that we don't get to see all the time, because everybody's from around the country, and, in many cases, from around the world.”
