Cheri Charlton Brightens Up Clay Street In LaPorte

When I knew that I would be in LaPorte for about a week I started looking up things that were going on in the community. I knew that I would have small breaks where I could go out and make some photos. I saw that a mural was going up just off of Lincolnway, but I figured it would be done before I could get here. A little rain delayed it just long enough for me to get to watch some of it going up. Cheri Charlton is in town from Chicago to put this mural up on the side of the Hot Spot Cafe. Last year I was inspired by the artists that came to Lafayette as part of the Wabash Walls project. The same can be said for the three days that I spent some time with Cheri watching her paint. I am always amazed at how these mural artists can take a blank wall and envision a mural on it. Even more amazed at how they take that idea from paper to the wall itself. It was really fun getting to watch a couple days of this wall coming to life.

Telling The Story

Part of what makes documenting something like this mural fun is telling a story. I did not spend much time at the wall, but when I did I tried to find elements to tell the story. My favorite story telling photo might be this one. You have Cheri obviously painting on the wall. You have the business in the frame as well. The street sign tells you that this is right off the main drag in town. I really like all of those elements in this photo. I found this composition earlier in the day, but the light was not great. I came back at night pretty much just to make this photo.

A LaPorte Week

This week the theme for the blog will be LaPorte. I plan on posting both in the morning and at night with some photos from the town that I grew up in. Things change so fast that at times I felt like a stranger in a place that I used to call home. It was fun getting out and exploring to find things that brought back memories of my childhood. This week I hope to share a few fun things about LaPorte. Below are a few more favorite photos from my brief time watching this mural go up.