{"id":59351,"date":"2013-06-11T20:51:18","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T02:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mural-is-a-traffic-stopper-for-mancos\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:16:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:16:52","slug":"mural-is-a-traffic-stopper-for-mancos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mural-is-a-traffic-stopper-for-mancos\/","title":{"rendered":"Mural is a traffic-stopper for Mancos"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stylle
Stylle Read paints the background of the mural on the west side of Mancos Liquors. The mural is part of the Mancos Heritage Project to upgrade the appearance of the town along the highway.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPeople will get out of their cars to take pictures of the mountains,\u201d said Mancos Liquor storeowner Ryan McKie.<\/p>\n

Sitting behind a cash register, McKie watches the highway traffic jams through a large plate glass window. He said travelers now have another item to photograph: a mural of a rancher and his cattle drive that adorns the western and southern exterior walls of his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people drive by, it will help bring attention to the store, and the town,\u201d McKie said.<\/p>\n

Commissioned by the Mancos Chamber of Commerce, the mural is part of a larger heritage project to beautify the arts community east of Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most visual wall in town,\u201d said McKie, \u201cand the mural captures today\u2019s events, just like in the old west.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muralist Stylle Read of Fort Worth, Texas, painted the 9-by-30-foot western-theme motif in eight days.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people drive with blinders, and never see anything but the road,\u201d Read said, sitting atop a milk crate on his lunch break last Friday. \u201cOthers will stop, take pictures, and before you know it they\u2019ve spent the whole day in town. That economic return felt locally, that\u2019s what makes me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an old cinder block building constructed in the 1960s as his canvas, Read said prepping for the mural included water blasting the exterior wall and applying a good layer of water protectant primer. A heavier coat of block primer was also added before Read applied four or five half-gallon pails of different color acrylic-based paints for the mural. For last minute touchups and highlights, he used conventional artist tube paint before finally spraying a clear coat layer of Frog Juice, a protectant against ultraviolet radiation, to seal the mural.<\/p>\n

\u201cMurals make a statement, and a lot of them are directly related to the particular community,\u201d Read said. \u201cThis one is indicative of times here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A western muralist for 38 years, Read said the weather, particularly the sun, is the greatest challenge of outdoor murals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.V. rays eat up everything; wood, cars, skin and paint,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to redo these things every 10 to 15 years. This stuff doesn\u2019t last forever like a bronze statue.\u201d<\/p>\n

His artist father, Sleepy Read, 92, still paints landscapes of rural Texas. Read said he owes his father for instilling his good work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet out, get going, and get it done,\u201d Read explained. \u201cDon\u2019t screw around. That\u2019s what I learned from my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

While in college at the University of North Texas at Denton, Read discovered his talent and love of mural painting.<\/p>\n

His artistic influences include Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, arguably the two greatest artists of the American West: \u201cRemington and Russell have always been my heroes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A history buff, Read\u2019s previous works have captured Pancho Villa\u2019s raid on Columbus and Charles Lindbergh\u2019s Spirit of St. Louis. He even painted a 25-foot portrait of Confederate General Patrick Cleburne in his hometown of Cleburne, Texas. Known as a great leader, the Irishman never stepped onto Texas soil, but the Ft. Worth suburb is named in honor of the rebel general, Read said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s the largest painting of a Confederate general ever,\u201d Read said, chuckling.<\/p>\n

From California to Tennessee and all over his home state of Texas, Read\u2019s works have appeared on Hollywood set designs, album covers and even the side of Hank Williams Jr.\u2019s tour bus. His largest mural is an 83-foot-long Texas street scene for the Fort Worth Stockyard.<\/p>\n

Following the 950-mile journey from Ft. Worth to Mancos, Read wasn\u2019t surprised to discover that so many artists called the Mancos Valley home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a neat little town,\u201d he said. \u201cI could live here, but I\u2019m from Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just glad to get back up to this country, and leave a little of my artwork here.\u201d<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read paints the background of the mural on the west side of Mancos Liquors. The mural is part of the Mancos Heritage Project to upgrade the appearance of the town along the highway.Sam Green\/Cortez Journal \u201cPeople will get out of their cars to take pictures of the mountains,\u201d said Mancos Liquor storeowner Ryan McKie. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,1472],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-59351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-painting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63235,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59351\/revisions\/63235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59351"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=59351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}