Local artist paints mural for Fort Myers Mural Society

By PAULETTE LeBLANC pleblanc@breezenewspapers com

According to local artist Roland Ruocco, the Lee County Visitors Convention Bureau approached the Fort Myers Mural Society asking to partner on several murals to be painted in an effort to stoke local tourism in the wake of Hurricane Ian One of the locations, which was recently completed, was on Pine Island, at the Eagle’s Nest Restaurant

The mural, Ruocco said, is Pine Island-themed with an array of local activities

“The project took about three and a half weeks to do It was a good amount of work, but, as always, it was a labor of love I had some assistance from a local artist, Doug Steward,” Ruocco said.

The Fort Myers Mural Society, Ruocco explained, has several artists, including himself, who do quite a few projects The Lee County Visitors Convention Bureau has four locations where they plan to have murals painted, including the one on Pine Island He and three other artists will collaborate on another upcoming project, he said

“They want to do more murals They’re very happy with the result of this one because they’re so

See MURAL, page 11

“It’s nice to have a lot of the people coming in that were old customers of ours They are happy to see us open back up again We’d like to thank everybody who helped us prepare this location so that we could get back up and working quicker it’s the typical small community support that you find that’s missing in some of the larger cities,” Jerry said

Cindee said she is really glad to be reopened and wants to encourage everyone to shop locally

See TRADER’’S HITCHING POST, page 12