ENID, OK - Since August of 2016, Kelly Thompkins, Director of Main Street Enid, Russ Frazee, owner of Garfield Furniture, and Paul Stone, designer at Signs on a Dime, have been working on a new public art project. The collaboration finally paid off this past week with the completion of "The Trail."
-
The trio had the idea of doing something on the south wall of Garfield Furniture's Bedding Store located at Maine and Grand. The location seemed ideal since it can be seen from two busy downtown streets. Tompkins wanted to create a cattle drive to honor local historian, Bob Klemme, who turns 91-years young in December.
-
Klemme is well known for his work marking the Chisholm Trail with over 400 markers all the way from Texas to Kansas. Incorporating the likeness of Klemme as the Horse Back Rider was important to Stone, the designer of the image. The goal was to complete the project before the 150th Anniversary of the Chisholm Trail which happens in 2017.
-
The idea was to create a public art piece using metal but including a little more detail in the design than just simple silhouettes. Tompkins wanted it to be big, 42 feet big that is. The group began by taking several pictures of the cattle drive at the last Chisholm Trail Parade. Stone then started drawing the design which had to be programmed into a computer so that Art's Machine Shop would be able to cut the images out of raw steel from their plasma cutter.
-
Once the images were cut, they went to Jimmy Stewart, owner of Scorpion Coating, to be sandblasted and painted with the impact resistant Scorpion Coating. The next step was the installation, which was by Dustin Dierksen of Dierksen Building. Dierksen had to attach the metal images to a brick wall. The final touch will be lighting installed by Scott at Conrady Electric.
-
Garfield Furniture and Main Street Enid collaborated to provide this art for the community, thanks in part to ONEOK, Inc., on behalf of Bert Mackie. A celebration date will be announced soon!
-
-
-
New Public Art Piece In Downtown Enid
