Local artist Anthony Tidwell's latest mural went on display at the Hot Springs Village Walmart on April 13, but the coronavirus pandemic prevented him from viewing the installation until Friday.
Most of Tidwell's murals are painted directly on a wall, but this one was printed and displayed as part of a worldwide contest -- and the coronavirus prevented him from being present at the installation.
While finally seeing the finished mural was a treat for Tidwell, he said he wished that he could share the moment with his family. "This is my first time getting to see it. I hate that I can't share it with my family because of COVID-19," he said.
Tidwell said the process of getting the mural made began last August or September, noting it was a project Walmart was doing because "they want to connect more to the community." He said it was a worldwide contest, not just for Hot Springs Village, but for Walmarts around the world that would get local artists to create local murals.
After seeing the marketing for the contest, Tidwell said he was encouraged by Robert Neilson, manager at the Hot Springs Village Walmart, to submit a design.
For the mural, Tidwell said he started with the outline of Garland County. Within the outline is a fountain that is located in Hot Springs Village, but Tidwell replaced the fountain with the Walmart spark logo. The water shooting out of the fountain is made out of golf clubs.
Tidwell said when he thinks of Hot Springs Village, he thinks of retirement, golf, fishing and the beautiful landscape. He said he also thinks of his grandfather. Outside of the outline of Garland County is a lake with two people fishing which he said are either a father and son, or a grandfather and grandson.
This design "just hit me," Tidwell said, noting he had the "concept in a few hours," but it "took a while tweaking it."
Tidwell departed from his normal bold color scheme for the mural, using more subdued colors, instead.
"I like big, bold colors," he said, but he didn't think that would fit in at Walmart. "I wanted it to flow with the color scheme of Walmart."
Tidwell said he turned to one of his old Cutwell 4 Kids students, Keaton Hixon, for help in digitizing the artwork and submitting it. "Keaton Hixon, he was a great help in turning it in," he said.
The project was outsourced to a company in California called NOW Art LA, he said, noting they submitted the concept to the company, and in January Tidwell learned his artwork had been selected.
"I was excited. Walmart is major," Tidwell said. "To have something I did hanging on a wall in Walmart."
This was the seventh mural Tidwell has worked on, and the fourth he has done in the past year, including two he worked on with Italian mural artist Pepe Gaka, and one he worked on at his studio with several of his students.
Those students, Tidwell said, is why he had done all of these recent projects.
"It's not about my art, it's about our mission," he said. C4K is a free art program for local children and every time he gets to do a project like this, "it gives hope," he said.
"If I can do it then they can, because some of them are better artists than I am. It shows that they can accomplish anything in life," he said. "Even I sometimes have doubt, but days like this happen if you persist."
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