Many local bars and restaurants have outdoor patios. No other mural is as stunningly large and colorful as the Old Palace Tavern in downtown East Moline.
The 115-foot-long, 11.5-foot-tall masterpiece was completed earlier this month by busy QC muralist Atlanta Dawn called “The Midwest Mississippi Waltz.” Check out the full mural video here.
“Amazing; people come here just to take pictures,” Ksaundra Martinez, manager of the bar and restaurant at 701 15th Street, said on the new patio on Sunday. I have.”
Building owner Larry Anderson (East Moline Glass owner) also owns the building next door with the mural – Girard Graphics and Design, 711 15th The Ave. Palace building is 107 years old and Anderson has owned it for about 18 months. He also owns the nearby Last His Belt His Complex (533 12th Ave.).
The old tavern was renovated with new lighting, tables, chairs, paneling, bathrooms, rewiring and plumbing (and outdoor awnings) by last November. Seats 85 inside and over 100 in the courtyard. .
“We always planned for an outdoor patio, but there was a big blank canvas there,” said Anderson.The courtyard was originally a parking lot.
“We wanted to tidy it up a bit, so Atlanta worked on Steel Plow.rd cent) and inside the last belt.
Anderson said of the eye-catching mural, “It’s all about revitalizing East Moline,” noting that it will help the palace’s business. Outdoor seating opened in June with a large stage for live music.
4 months of work
From mid-April to mid-August, 29-year-old Dawn from Moline worked on a large mural to juggle other busy art projects in the area. The Visit Quad Cities podcast called the artist “Our very own Bansky, and she paints all of her Quad Cities!” (Listen to Dawn here.)
She and her husband also have a one-year-old daughter, Violet. As before, Dawn will occasionally paint her live during Rust Belt concerts.
“I’m a new mom so I can’t do as many nights as I used to,” she said on Sunday. , I paint.”
Dawn’s husband, Cody, works for RMS as a heavy equipment field mechanic.
Martinez added the Palace’s patio tables and chairs about a month ago and hosts live music at least twice a week. Next up is Jencraft on Wednesday, August 31st from 6pm until he’s 9pm.
The Palace started live music in June and was still a parking lot when Dawn started the mural. They added a gate so people couldn’t get in.
Martinez said people would willingly walk out of other parking lots downtown, so it wouldn’t hurt to lose a parking space. She said it was to give them a chance to have fun.
Dawn started in the right half of the mural with musicians representing jazz, blues and salsa dancers and ended in early June. She was painting when there was live music in the palace.
“I had so much work and a full schedule that I was all over the place,” Dawn said. “If I had a break between jobs, I would come here to work, come on weekends, whatever I needed to do.”
music and water theme
Dawn originally thought that the musical theme would cover the entire wall, so he added a sea/river theme to the left half, in honor of the Mississippi River.
“I thought I was going to do more of a musician, but I decided to go in a different direction and embrace what it feels like to live in Mississippi,” she says, adding that the designs were designed by Moline’s Rock River. He said it reminded him of his childhood growing up.
Dawn created catfish, cattails, and thunderbugs in the mural. “Every time I drive down the Mississippi, I see gray herons flying,” she said, so the herons stand out in the painting.
“I wanted people to enjoy that feeling when the music was playing,” she says of the mural’s passionate musicians.
Artists also incorporated a variety of lighting effects into the mural, from musicians to anthropomorphic moons, lighting bugs, and twinkling stars over the river.
Martinez also plans to create rows of real lights along the murals and install awnings on the palace side. She hears many compliments from her customers.
they love it It’s amazing,” she said of the mural. “It’s an inspiration.”
So huge, Dawn enlisted the help of other local artists, including fellow muralist Heidi Sallows and a Metro Arts student.
She usually takes a photo of the mural surface and scribbles on her iPad before working on the actual wall paint.
Around the same time as the Palace, she created the outdoor window murals for the Silvis Public Library, the piano for the RME One Sound project at the Niabi Zoo, and the Russ Fitness mural for the Rust Belt.
Dawn volunteered to organize artists for the Living Land & Waters Barge Party this summer, and also painted an indoor mural on the fourth floor of an apartment building in downtown Davenport. This is a black and white replica of Picasso’s landmark “Guernica” (completed early July, 16ft x 8ft).
“It was one of his favorite paintings and he thought it would go well with the style of the interior,” Dorn said of the building’s owner.
She also created a large indoor mural at the Aircraft Grille near QC International Airport in Moline several years ago. She’s another big one at her Iron + Grain Coffee House in Davenport (1618 N. Main St.) and this year she’s opening her new Yoso Japanese Steak in downtown Bettendorf (1591 Grant St.). I painted inside the house.
future work piles up
Dawn is in talks with Robbie Wolfe (“American Pickers” co-star) to create a mural on the 5th.th Davenport Street, outside his service shop. She will first, in about two weeks, draw a billboard for him in a Texaco man’s design.
“Especially if he maintains the history of the Quad Cities, that’s great,” Dawn said of the mural on the wall (which spans several city blocks) along the railroad bridge. That work will likely begin in the spring.
Dawn doesn’t mind painting temporary art for windows. Because this is a consistent source of work. She’s already set up sales contacts for her season this holiday.
“Christmas is almost here,” said Dawn. “I’m really trying to make more plans for the Christmas season.”
Although she is busy working on windows all year round, Christmas is her most popular holiday. She played several events in downtown Moline last year. She creates popular year-round window murals at her Freight House complex at 421 W. River Drive in Davenport.
“People love it and it still looks really pretty,” Dawn said, noting that many people at the weekly farmers market were taking pictures in front of her butterfly mural.
She hopes the palace murals will generate more business for her.
“When the music is playing and the lights are on, you can see them coming down the hill,” says Martinez.
“The mural feels like it connects the space of the stage and the outdoor seating,” says Dawn. “When I’m here with my family, we have pizza and beer. It’s so nice, it’s like magic.”
She will also be painting along the Mississippi River in Davenport in the coming weeks when the new Viking River cruises dock here.
Martinez and Dawn are both Girard Graphics customers, responsible for artist art prints and restaurant promotional posters. Click here for more information on Dawn.
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