Friday, July 31, 2009 11:02 PM CDT
Local artist's mural serves as
backdrop for collection of pedal cars
By Bonnie Clark, Features Writer
bclark@jg-tc.com
While the year 1950 was four decades before he was born, with research and a lot of imagination, Colt Davis has created his own ‘50s town on a mural in a garage in Gays.
Davis, 19, of Mattoon was hired by father and son Norman and Dave Schultz to create the mural to serve as a backdrop for a display of some of the elder Schultz’s 1950s-era pedal cars.
“I told my dad that since I use the room for parties throughout the year, I wanted it to look presentable,” Schultz said.
Discussions led from one thing to another and the pair decided it would be nice to have a mural of a ‘50s town as a background for the cars.
Norman Schultz, a paper mill representative, lives in the Chicago area, but regularly travels to R.R. Donnelley in Mattoon. A friend at the plant told him that his son who had just graduated from high school was an artist.
“We looked at some of Colt’s work and enjoyed what we saw,” said Dave Schultz. “It turns out he did a phenomenal job for us.”
The mural is painted on the top portion of the interior walls in the heated, air-conditioned garage in rural Gays. Shelves stretching around the walls in front of the mural hold the cars, including one of the owner’s favorites, a Duesenberg, and a fire truck.
Part of the collection of 54 cars and trucks is displayed at Norman Schultz’s Chicago-area home. Some cars are stored, with others awaiting restoration.
Only a fraction of his collection is displayed in the building at his son’s home in rural Gays.
“The mural’s ‘50s theme is based on the cars themselves,” said Dave Schultz, an Itaska firefighter who lives in Gays and drives to the Chicago suburb every third day to work.
“The mural contains a barn, which is right across the road from me, and a house that is a close representation of my house.”
It also has a drive-in theater that has a scene from the popular 1950s movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” shown on the screen. There’s a covered bridge inspired by a photograph, and the Majestic Theater.
One of the buildings has a mural painted on it similar to one on a building in Neoga, Davis said. There is a church and gazebo, and, of course, a fire house, which is a compilation of period Chicago-area fire houses.
The artist, now a student planning an architecture major at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, said it took him about 500 hours to complete the project.
“When they asked me to paint it, I really couldn’t give them a time I could finish, because I’d never done anything like it before,” Davis said. “Deadlines kept getting pushed back, and the final deadline was right before I left for college.”
The Schultzes hosted a party for about 40 people to honor the artist and celebrate the completion of the mural in July.
“I actually finished it the day we did the unveiling,” Davis said. “There was still some wet paint on the wall at the party. We cut it pretty close.”
Davis said he learned a number of things on the job.
“Some things I had to do two or three times to get them right,” he said, “but it wasn’t that bad. And, I had Dave and Norm there to help. They were standing on the ground and I was on the scaffolding. That kept me from having to climb up and down so much.
“It’s tough getting perspective when you’re 10 or 12 feet off the ground. Everything looks different up there.”
Norman Schultz said he started collecting pedal cars in the early 1990s, “probably because when I was a youngster in the early ‘40s and ‘50s, I always wanted a pedal car, but my parents didn’t get me one.
“I guess it’s really a deep, hidden passion of mine, deeply buried in my psyche,” he said.
“When Hallmark came out with the miniature pedal cars, I couldn’t wait to get them. I have the complete collection. Then in the 1990s, I graduated from the Hallmark miniatures to the real pedal cars.”
The cars are all different sizes, he said. “On average they’re 36 to 42 inches long and about 2 feet wide.”
Anything purchased from before World II is premium, because many of the pedal cars were given up during the scrap metal drives conducted as part of the war effort at home, Schultz said.
Although the mural took about 500 hours of hard work to paint, the artist said it wouldn’t deter him from working on another mural.
“Actually, I’ve already been ask to do more murals in Mattoon,” Davis said. “I’ll be more prepared next time. I learned a lot on this one.”
Contact Bonnie Clark at bclark@jg-tc.com or 238-6847.
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