Wanting to honor active and retired service members in the community, owners of Bob’s Bar & Grill, 108 E. Yelm Ave., and local artist, Michael Heaton, have officially completed a patriotic mural displaying patriotic American symbolism.
Heaton began to paint the mural on July 1, which includes the stars and stripes, Lady Liberty, a bald eagle and “we the people” written on a scroll. Leon Collins, co-owner of Bob’s Bar & Grill, said the design was inspired by an American emblem, originally placed at the business’s entryway by the building’s original owner, Bob Ellis.
“We have a lot of retired military in our town and a lot of retired military that comes in. This is my way of saying thank you, too,” Collins said. “He worked hard doing this mural. He was very meticulous and was here working every day.”
Heaton said after he was informed about the project, he saw the emblem at the tavern’s front door and began to create several sketches based on what he saw. He said that one of his designs made it to Yelm City Hall and was possible with a community beautification grant.
“It’s a statement that as Americans, we sincerely love America. We love the ability to put it out there, instead of hiding it,” Heaton said. “During this whole process, there were a lot of people stopping in and saying hi. People would bring me little treats, doughnuts, and one guy bought me lunch. It felt so good being genuine, and it just warmed my heart. I want to give all the credit to Steve Craig.”
Craig, a member of the Yelm Arts Commission, was pleased with Heaton’s artwork at Bob’s Bar & Grill. He’s been a driving factor of bringing more artwork into Yelm, and he’s advocated for the arts commission and community beautification grant numerous times.
“This is the kind of stuff we’re promoting,” Craig said. “This is totally consistent with the intent of what the art commission envisions, and what the future of art in Yelm is.”
Before beginning to work on the mural itself, Heaton said the building underwent a little bit of building repair. Then Heaton began priming the paint and transferring the images to the building through a digital process. He said the surface of the building was so rough that he wasn’t able to be “hyper-accurate with anything.”
“I had to use the abilities I do have to bring it along,” Heaton said. “I mixed hundreds of colors on the spot in a hurry to beat the heat. From 9 a.m. until 11 a.m., the weather was great every day. Then I’d get lightheaded around 1 p.m., and I’d have no choice but to call it quits.”
Heaton added that he didn’t use brushes for the mural, but instead used spray paint. He said painting Lady Liberty was the most challenging portion of the project. He gave the painting of the American statue “four facelifts” before he was satisfied.
“I had the images cut in, so what I had to do was take thin cardboard and cut templates, or stencils, to spray paint against,” Heaton said. “I used a regularly small paint sprayer and two airbrushes — one utility, one fine art. As I’d go along, I’d cut, with my knife, stencils to spray through.”
Collins, who purchased Bob’s Bar & Grill in 2010, was pleased with Heaton’s patriotic mural. As a military veteran, Collins hopes others are inspired by the artwork.
“Michael did a good job on it. I love it,” Collins said. “We’ve seen a bunch of positive feedback so far, in person and online. Our bartender had it on Facebook, and we’ve got nothing but good feedback.”
Line Roy, City of Yelm communications and recreation coordinator, was glad Bob’s Bar & Grill took advantage of the community beautification grant.
“This is part of the city’s beautification grant process,” Roy said. “This is something that we encourage every business to take advantage of and work to add more to the landscape of our community.”
Information about the grant process can be found at https://yelmwa.gov/play/beautification_grant_program.php.
