A mural recently completed by Tama artist Dye Davenport adorns the wall of Great Western Bank in Marshalltown. Davenport has been busy creating mural pieces over the last two years since the tornado hit Marshalltown in 2018. Photo provided

The Arts & Culture Alliance recently announced the completion of the Great Western Bank graffiti mural in Marshalltown.

As a continued symbol of hope, unity and strength during continued difficult times, the Marshalltown Arts Alliance has partnered with Great Western Bank and Tama artist, Dye Davenport, to create a new graffiti piece in Downtown Marshalltown. The piece is a unity-themed mural that came about in a year that has been challenging for many.

“I enjoy making people smile through tragedies and it is my goal to lift people’s spirits with the arts,” said Davenport. “With the tornado and the wind storm, people just came together. Everybody was just helping each other. That was the main thing behind the mural.”

The mural is located on the corner of East State Street and North First Avenue. During tough times people are experiencing this year, the Alliance believes the arts provide hope, unity and strength for the community.

“It took quite a while because we had to go against the wind and the rain,” Davenport said. “Spraying in that kind of stuff doesn’t work. All together it probably took about two days.”

“We are thrilled to find a way to brighten up our downtown business district and demonstrate the resiliency of the community and hope for good things going forward for the entire Marshalltown area,” Great Western Bank President Jeff Mathis said.

As people spend the weeks and months to come continuing Derecho clean up and navigating COVID-19, they hope to be reminded of the ability of the community to stay unified.

Davenport has enjoyed drawing for many years and as his experience grew he has branched out into graphic design and more recently large form, spray painted murals.

“The mural work has really been going ever since the 2018 tornado,” Davenport said. “My son and I were driving around through Marshalltown that day looking at everybody’s reactions to what just happened. We both thought we gotta do something. We were sitting in the Walgreens parking lot and I looked at him and said ‘Hey, why don’t we use that graffiti wall and put a message up there’. We went and grabbed some cans, put up the mural and its all kind of snowballed from there.”

Since the mural in 2018 Davenport has created pieces in Marshalltown for the graduating class of 2020, Marshalltown’s Oktemberfest and for the Arts Alliance shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold earlier this year.

“Usually people do a serious type of art. Mine is to put smiles on peoples faces. To cheer people up, that’s what mine is really for. Right now everybody is in a tense mood. You can really tell.”

Davenport’s larger works have stayed mostly in Marshall County with the exception of the colorful, custom road signs he creates for the Annual Meskwaki Powwow in August.

Although he has yet to bring his mural work to Tama County, Davenport says he would be open to the idea if the right opportunity came together.