2,000 feet of artstory and photos by Amy Beth Graves The five U.S. military men stand at attention between the columns of a majestic building with an image of Earth behind them and the words “For Freedom” above them. A passerby raises her left hand to shield her eyes from the bright sunshine and for a moment it looks like she is saluting the five who represent 20th Century U.S. armed forces. The men don’t even blink an eye and for good reason – they are part of a mural that stretches more than 2,000 feet along a floodwall that protects the city of Portsmouth from the waters of the Ohio River.
The Portsmouth Floodwall Murals, painted on a gray floodwall built after a devastating 1937 flood, are 20 feet high and contain 66 images of 2,000 years of history in Portsmouth, once a thriving steel, brick and shoe manufacturing town. “2,000 years of history/2,000 feet of art” is how the murals are marketed on T-shirts and other merchandise in the Portsmouth-Scioto County Convention and Visitors Bureau across the street from the murals.
“They’re so beautiful. They draw people from all over the world,” said Linda Switzer, a retired teacher who lives across the street from the murals and sells hand painted wooden eggs that promote Portsmouth. “People really enjoy coming here to see the murals and enjoy the small town feeling.”
Switzer exudes that small town friendliness by inviting tourists into her 1790 log cabin filled with antiques. Her “shop” consists of a table displaying her knickknacks, a couple of chairs for tourists to relax and a guest book that contains signatures of visitors from as far away as Russia.
On this hot summer day, Switzer is talking with Patti and Jim Harley of Long Beach, Calif., who were on vacation in Lexington, Ky., and decided to see the murals after hearing a friend talk about them.
“Oh my gosh, I want to come back and take pictures,” Patti Harley exclaimed after realizing that she forgot her camera. “We should have this in Long Beach. It’s such a beautiful blend of art and history.”
Harley’s reaction is one that muralist Robert Dafford of Lafayette, La., likes to hear. He has spent almost 15 years designing and painting the Portsmouth murals, which go in chronological order from east to west along Front Street. The colorful and intricately detailed pictures depict the river town’s past, starting with the Mound Builders, who were ancestors of the Shawnee Indians, and ending with a twilight image of modern-day Portsmouth as seen from Kentucky.
“These murals have been successful in attracting visitors and having an economic impact on Portsmouth. It shows that art is important and that it can change things,” Dafford said by phone while en route to Louisiana.
Dafford was hired to paint the drab floodwall after a Portsmouth couple, Dr. Louis Chaboudy and his wife, Ava, visited Steubenville and saw the historical murals painted on its downtown buildings. The couple and other area residents went on to form Portsmouth Murals Inc., a volunteer, nonprofit organization that solicits financial aid from individuals, corporations and state agencies to fund the floodwall murals.
Dafford, who painted some of the 25 Steubenville murals, has been working on the Portsmouth project since 1992 and has no plans to stop, even though the floodwall facing Portsmouth is filled up with his murals. He and his assistants have started working on a section of wall not far from the Portsmouth Brewery, built in 1843, and will paint three murals on the visitor’s center.
On a steamy summer day, two of Dafford’s assistants prep a wall by applying keim, a white mineral paint that is exceptionally resistant to extreme weather and is long lasting.
“I got my start here in Portsmouth,” said Justin Montavon as he spread a glob of keim to the wall. “It’s exciting to see something start from nothing and have something appear that everyone appreciates.”
After 35 years of doing murals, Dafford has developed a system that allows him to start and work on several projects at the same time. He does all the research and design of a mural and creates a small scale drawing that his lead artists can transfer to a wall, using charcoal or a Sharpie for the outline. While Dafford may not actually apply the paint to the wall, he is personally involved in every one. It takes anywhere from two weeks to several months to paint a mural, depending on the size and complexity.
“Over the years I’ve learned the dance so well that it doesn’t take but a few moves to do it well,” Dafford said. “I wanted to be a celebrity art star but after doing this work, I’ve discovered that I have the ability to translate a community’s feelings and history into something you can stand in front of and feel. Somehow feelings are transmitted into these paintings.”
Amy Beth Graves is a freelance writer from Franklin County.
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