Lincoln Highway mural number 12 . . . North Aurora, IL

[Jay Allen]

I'm a little behind in this . . . and the project slowed. So I'll post a few on a slow day . . .

Telling the story of Exposition Park outside of Aurora, IL (now North Aurora). As the painted copy of an early original advertisement say, Exposition Park was 'the ideal amusement park'. As the nation began to travel more by car, entertainment like this flourished . . . for a while!!

This was never one of my favorites as there was very little resource material since the Park no longer exists - and the fact that I had to design it so it was split in two parts. Very difficult . . . So we had little to work with. This was my best shot . . . but you know . . . it looked better once it was installed. More of a testament to Bill's painting skills!!

Hope you like it . . .

http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq14 ... =slideshow

As always, I designed this - Joey Marshall engineered it - and Bill Hueg did the masterful job of painting it.

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Jay,
Thanks for taking the time to post the slide show here for all to see. Nice to see you are staying busy and keeping a few other people busy. All the projects are beautiful, as always.

Please keep posting them as you get them completed.

A few months ago, I started buying a lot of books on the Lincoln Highway. Every chance I get, I try to find the remnants that run through the southern part of Wyoming and down into Salt Lake City. Hopefully, sometime this spring, I can drive across Utah and into Nevada on what is left of the Lincoln Highway. There should be a fair amount of old Ghost Signs along the way.

Take care,
Mike Jackson

[Jay Allen]

Thanks, Mike . . . The road has quite a history - and I know far too much of it now!! Good to have steady work, though.

I saw your Teton Images at Blurb site . . . Very cool work you're doing with Photoshop. I use that a bunch for the LH murals - as you might expect. It was YOUR tutorial on keystoning that allows those final mural shots to not look so distorted - so thanks for writing that article. My fave in the Teton images was the aspens in the fall shot in the woods . . . very contrasting and eye-catching. Nicely done.

It'll be a bit before I add more LH step-by-step's here . . . we've got two to paint and then nothing until they toss more design fees my way . . . Grants, government, too small of a credit line for the project . . . boy, do I have stories . . .