Murphy Phelan
he/him
I love it when a place has been around long enough that there is a kind of quilted memory that exists between local myths that transmit a collective identity and the present-day landmarks that make it more than just a special place. The mural is a variation of the box design for the deck of playing cards that I illustrated for Visit McMinnville last year. The intention is that the imagery isn’t static representations of McMinnville, but instead, are unrelated bits of info about the town put together to create loose and fun narratives that include winemaking, UFOs, ghost stories, Beverly Cleary books, a famous 80s movie, a bit of historical legend, and a bronze statue. Continued below.
In a way, the mural winks at the people who have seen the cards, but has no trouble representing McMinnville on its own. Generally speaking, I wanted locals to feel like I captured something, visitors to feel like they uncovered something, and I wanted to feel like I made something new out of something old.
I am an illustrator and designer from Portland who typically works in digital, drawing on collaged information to (hopefully) produce intriguing and slightly weird imagery. My inspiration to be creative is typically a crash landing somewhere between surrealism, dumb jokes, and external validation.