Click the image above for a LARGE image of the mural.
 Stephanie
Holland examines the site of the mural prior to installation.
|
Several years ago retired teacher and librarian Beverly Ellis learned of the need for a mural on a wall of a small pocket park in downtown Hobbs, New Mexico. She asked her friend Stephanie Holland, a retired elementary teacher, if she thought they could make a ceramic tile mural to fill the need. The two were taking ceramics at New Mexico Junior College twice a week as a hobby, but neither had ever made a tile. Even so, Stephanie replied that she guessed they could do that. The MainStreet Hobbs organization funded the necessary materials and the NMJC gave them free reign in the ceramics lab on holidays and between semesters, which allowed them to fire their work there. Eventually, the two produced a triptych approximately thirty-one feet long and six feet high. There are 405 eight by eight inch tiles. The mural is an impressionistic picture of Southeastern New Mexico. Sand swirls over the dunes, a sunset, and a thunderstorm over the caprock are the three sections. Along the bottom is an area with imprints representing underground fossils from the Permian Sea showing the source of our local oilfields. The duo researched, designed, made mistakes, and started over when necessary. Using Laguna clay, Coyote Clay high fire underglazes, a clear glaze recipe from Santa Fe Clay, and a book on tile making by Angelica Pozo, the project took about four years. Then the tiles sat in storage for a year waiting for the right professional to install them. In July of 2009, a Hobbs citizen donated the funds through MainStreet Hobbs to have Riley Tile of Roswell install the project. Beverly and Stephanie have no plans to make more murals in the future. Their project was done out of an enjoyment of art and an affection for their town. |
The pocket park where the mural is located sits on the south side
of the 300 block of West Broadway in downtown Hobbs, New Mexico.