A mural, seen here in early September, on the north side of the Weaver Building in downtown Dunkirk is in its final stages. The mural highlights the city’s history, heavily featuring its prominence in the glass industry. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)
A mural, seen here in early September, on the north side of the Weaver Building in downtown Dunkirk is in its final stages. The mural highlights the city’s history, heavily featuring its prominence in the glass industry. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney)
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DUNKIRK — Drivers headed south on Main Street through Dunkirk for years saw a crumbling wall that remained from a downtown building that had been demolished.

Now, when they glance to the east, they’re greeted by a giant train, the smiling face of Frank Merry, Charlie DeCamp hard at work and a flame rising into the city’s logo.

Those are just some of the elements artist Pamela Bliss is putting the final touches on this week as she completes a giant mural on the north wall of the Weaver Building.

“The excitement just kept growing as we went,” said Dru Hall, chairman of the Glass Capital Mural Committee. “Now that it’s a couple days from being done we’re even more excited because it just looks fabulous.”

The mural is an amalgam of the city’s history, and much of that history is glass-related. The image of Merry, the first president of Indiana Glass, is at its center. The right side of the mural features DeCamp, a Dunkirk man who worked as a glass blower. To the left is a train, adorned with the Dunkirk Speedcat logo, as railroads were integral to the glass industry. There is also a modern view of Ardagh (the city’s remaining glass factory), various glass bottles and an A&W root beer mug — Indiana Glass made the company’s first such mugs — pouring out its contents.

The mural also features a nod to the city being the home of choreographer Twyla Tharp, a downtown streetscape, the Cinderella Queen of Glass crown and an array of glassware. At the far west side of the mural is an enormous flame, reminiscent of the days when it was thought the gas boom would never end and gas wells burn constantly.

For Bliss, it was finding a way to bring all of the various elements together that was most challenging. Her early efforts weren’t hitting the mark.

“They really weren’t feeling it,” said Bliss of the initial designs she sent the mural committee, “and I wasn’t feeling it.”

It took months for the plans to evolve. It was the idea to have the train and DeCamp painted as if they’re emerging from the wall — almost a 3-D effect — that brought the mural to life.

“I thought, ‘I need to make it look like it’s popping out of the wall,’” said Bliss. “In order to make it interesting, I’ve got to do something. … So I just had to get away from it for a little while and then recharge.”

The committee first approached Dunkirk County Council about the possibility of a mural early last summer. Council agreed in July to spend $21,200 to repair the wall that had a variety of structural issues after the remainder of the building was torn down following a fire. The repairs included removing some bricks and plaster, tuck pointing and capping the top.

Randy Fisher, a mural enthusiast who pushed for the works Bliss painted in Portland and also served on the Glass Capital Mural Committee, said he sees the project as key to revitalization.

“I think it’s a tool to help fix up a building that’s going downhill, that’s decaying,” he said. “It’s a way to help fund the rejuvenation of a building.”

Fisher noted that while it might be difficult to fundraise just to fix a building, adding the element of a mural creates some community spirit.

“That’s the coolest thing about this,” said Hall. “If we didn’t do any more than what we did this spring and last fall as far as prepping that wall, it still would have been a wonderful thing.”

Bliss has spent several months working on the mural, her latest in a long list that she’s created all around Indiana. And at about 65 feet wide by 30 feet tall, it’s among the largest in the state.

Last summer, Bliss painted the Portland Rockets mural on the south side of Hall’s Ritz Theatre building in honor of the team’s 60th anniversary. She also painted the Elwood Haynes mural on the north side of the Eagles building.

Her work in her hometown of Cambridge City, including one of Abraham Lincoln, is among her favorite. She’s also responsible for the 60-foot-tall Reggie Miller mural in Indianapolis and a 35-foot by 52-foot John Mellencamp mural in Seymour.

The next project on her schedule is an Indianapolis mural of Romanian-born Holocaust survivor Eva Kor — it will match Miller at 60 feet tall — who became a human rights advocate in Indiana.

Murals can help remind a city or region about its history, such as Dunkirk being the “Glass Capital of Indiana,” Bliss said. It can also help build community pride, she added.

“When you start doing public art, people become interested in it,” said Bliss, whose work is displayed at pamelabliss.gallery. “Sometimes it starts a chain reaction.”

Bliss has had several helpers on the mural, including her daughter Carly (Mattingly) Dee, her daughter-in-law’s sister Carolina Rodas and fellow artist Charlene Mosley, who she met while working on the “Loving Vincent” project. Fisher and Hall also had the opportunity to do some “fill-in work” on the mural.

“Every time she let me do it, I thanked her because it was just cool,” said Hall.
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