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  • After two days working on the mural along the front exterior of Plato Elementary, the mural is taking shape. Derrick Miller/The Duncan Banner

    After two days working on the mural along the front exterior of Plato Elementary, the mural is taking shape.

  • Bob Palmer paints the front exterior wall of Plato Elementary. Derrick Miller/The Duncan Banner

    Bob Palmer paints the front exterior wall of Plato Elementary.
July 25, 2012

Plato mural project takes shape

Derrick Miller The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — After 12 years, paintings of children no longer mark the front exterior of Plato Elementary. In a manner of speaking, that ship has sailed.

Bob Palmer, Palmer Studios Inc. of Oklahoma City, started working Monday on a new collection of murals for the elementary school.

The paintings, which features pirates and a pirate ship, in honor of Plato’s pirate mascot, are being added to the front of the building and the side ramp in honor of the school’s 100th anniversary.

Plato Principal John Millirons said the project is bittersweet because it is replacing the images Plato children painted in May 2000.

Some of the faces painted on the wall have been defaced with gold paint in recent months.

But Millirons is happy to see the school taking a fresh step for its Centennial year.

“It’s exciting for me to be here this year, to have this experience,” Millirons said. “We can’t stay stagnate.”

Prior to 1980, Plato Elementary’s front wall was blue.

When Millirons joined the school as principal that year, he added a rough texture to the front of the building, which caused the building to lose its blue wall.

Millirons said the new front mural would be something Duncan residents and Plato students can enjoy for years to come. He said it’s something people can and should be proud of.

Palmer, who is noted for his artistic murals, including that of an Oklahoma Centennial mural in Oklahoma City, has already brought life to big blank walls in Duncan.

In April 2009, he painted the crapemyrtle mural on the side of the Palace Theatre, in honor of Duncan being named the Crapemyrtle Capital of Oklahoma.

In February 2011, he also painted the mural inside the Jack A. Maurer Convention Center in the Simmons Center, for the Simmons Center’s 20th anniversary.

When Palmer was painting in a studio, he enjoyed painting large. Murals are his canvas.

As he started Monday, the goal was to paint the front wall blue, like waves and sky.

From there, Palmer and his fellow artists used a projector to help sketch images onto the building.

By Tuesday, the project began to take shape. It is expected to be completed today.

“It should be real classy and timeless,” Palmer said.

Palmer said his least favorite part of any mural is putting the base color on the wall, covering old images.

That’s because painting on color on the wall makes him feel like a “house painter.”

But when the group starts painting characters and other images onto the wall, the artist in him really overtakes and replaces that “house painter” feeling.

“We usually do lots of schools, nursing homes, places where there are a lot of people,” he said.

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