Sweetwater's New Mural

In April, the City of Sweetwater got a new mural. It is on the Lazy Beagle restaurant owned by Sam and Kelly Moser and was funded by a grant from Sweetwater Merchants & Property Owners Association and the City of Sweetwater’s mural grant which is paid from hotel/motel packs out of the tourism fund. It was painted by Megan Lingerfelt.

Originally the mural was to include Sam and Kelly Moser’s pet beagle, Rose, who passed away several years ago and from whom the restaurant gets its name. However, during the concept sketch phase, the drawings were so good that the couple became emotional and decided they couldn’t bear to see their departed pet every morning. Instead, the concept was reworked to be about Tennessee as a whole with the Tennessee Tri-Star, a bluetick hound, irises which are our state flower, and fireflies which are our state bug. The couple are very happy with how the mural has turned out.

Painter Megan Lingerfelt said that putting the mural together and painting the dog was very fun. Her artistic process starts on her iPad, putting together different pictures that she has taken or that the client has provided and seeing how they look together. The process of mapping the mural onto the wall usually takes a day. There are different ways to do this, but for the Sweetwater mural, she put pieces of tape on the wall, took a picture, overlayed where the outlines would coincide with the pieces of tape, and drew it out from there, like a giant paint-by-numbers. Megan was assisted by Whit Herrington. Additionally, Megan also painted the Lilies of Devotion mural on White’s Marble Works

The city board allocates $15,000 every year towards murals. They are doing another mural on North Main Street at Sweetwater Market at the Mill. It is scheduled for completion in the last week of May.