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Making lemonade from busted glass

Music store has murals painted on boarded up windows

Apr 14, 2008 - 11:27:02 CDT

FARMINGTON — When four windows were broken in his store, Rick Wisdom decided to “make lemonade” out of busted glass.

Wisdom asked Rachel Forbes, the sister of one of his instructors, to paint murals on the boarded-up windows. He figured he’d have to wait on the replacement glass anyway.

Using Wisdom’s photographs, Forbes painted a bluegrass and country mural on the left side of the building.

The mural with an American flag background features Sheriff Dan Bullock, Wisdom, Quentin Huck, Gary Watson and Terry Tiefenauer. A few of them are music instructors there and most, including Wisdom, are members of the Sheriff and His Deputies band.

On Friday, Forbes began painting the mural on the other side of the downtown building. This mural, if she goes with her idea, features rock legends sliding, jumping, and playing instruments.

Forbes admits she is actually more of a drawer than a painter and hasn’t done a mural for a business before. She has painted a nature-themed mural in her daughter’s room.

Forbes said her mother told her that she drew her a pretty good picture when she 2 years old. It was of someone playing the piano and she had drawn notes on the paper. That’s when her mom knew she was going to be a good artist.

When she attended high school at Farmington, she took all of the art classes she could. She said art is a hobby. Being a full-time mom is her main focus.

Forbes has been working on a mural in her brother’s instruction room at Music Maker’s. The room features drawings of several musicians.

On Friday, Wisdom talked to Forbes about doing another mural on a wall on top of the store’s roof. She said it would be silhouettes of instruments with a colorful background.

She said Bob-A-Rino’s has also approached her about painting a pizza guy in the restaurant.

Four of Music Makers’ store windows were broken out March 29 when a local youth, who officials say was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, ran and jumped through a window.

Police say 17-year-old Taylor B. Moore grabbed a guitar — known in some music circles as an “axe” — and began destroying other instruments and windows.

Police said the youth was screaming incoherently when they arrived and they found him inside the music store throwing merchandise around. He had to be Tazed and maced repeatedly to be brought under control. He was handcuffed and taken to an area emergency room for injuries he had sustained.