Mural Art Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Artist Lea Craigie Retells Berkeley County History With New Mural

A new mural will be installed this spring at the Martinsburg Steam Laundry Building, to celebrate the 250-year anniversary of Berkeley County’s founding. Artist Lea Craigie is currently working on the project.

In 2022, Berkeley County celebrated its 250th anniversary. Now, the county is looking back at its history through a public art lens.

By early June, a mural will be on display in the heart of Martinsburg tracing the history and culture of Berkeley County over the years.

Reporter Jack Walker spoke with Lea Craigie, the artist behind the new mural, about her public art piece so far. Craigie grew up in Martinsburg and attended Shepherd University as an undergraduate.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Walker: To begin, could you tell me a little about the mural project you’re currently working on?

Craigie: Yes. So I was contacted by the 250th Commemoration Committee for Berkeley County to create a mural depicting a lot of the history that we don’t really necessarily learn about. A lot of it was very new to me, even though I did West Virginia history in school — and, you know, you learn a lot. A lot of the history that I dug up and found to include in the mural was history that I think a lot of people just won’t know about until they maybe go to the mural and start looking at all the details.

Walker: What are some of these aspects of history that you’re speaking about that are going to be featured in the mural?

Craigie: So a lot of the arts and the agriculture and things that we do know about in Berkeley County and we’re proud of are highlighted. But then also just hidden figures. So one of the panels of the portraits of people is Garland Lorenzo Wilson. And he was a jazz pianist in the 20s, an African American man who made it on his own. It’s just an amazing, inspiring story of a musician who made it. He ended up going to Paris and playing with all the jazz greats. So he is one of the portraits that’s highlighted, and he’s definitely somebody I never knew about before. I love unearthing figures, especially of people in history I just never got to know about.

And I just wanted to make sure I highlighted somebody that maybe we didn’t know about yet, who came from Martinsburg.

Walker: And I know that this is going to be a pretty massive display. Could you tell me a little bit about what went into the location of this mural, and then also what this mural will look like in terms of size and scale?

Craigie: The building that this will be located on is on Water Street in Martinsburg.

And it’ll be seven 10 foot-by-10 foot panels depicting the arts, the agriculture, the industry and figures and also, very importantly the airport. The airport was a really important hub for Berkeley County.

Lea Craigie stands with a panel of her mural depicting Berkeley County history, which will soon be on display in downtown Martinsburg.
*Photo Credit: Jason Marshall*

Walker: So it sounds like both in terms of the content of this mural and then also its placement very prominently in Martinsburg that this is something that’s kind of trying to very publicly state that these are pieces of Martinsburg history, and kind of honor things that are unspoken in terms of the Martinsburg narrative. Is that true to how you see this project?

Craigie: I believe it touches on every aspect of Berkeley County. I’ve worked very hard to make sure all parts of the community and all parts of the county were depicted in the mural. So in the industry panel, we have Musselman Apple. So every part of the county. I went from Hedgesville, to Musselman, you know, to all the different areas of the county. And actually the county at this point in history, it goes from the beginning of Berkeley County, to the end. So as you’re looking at the panels, the very first panel in the background of the arts panel, is the outline of Berkeley County as it was at the beginning. So Berkeley County actually went all the way to Berkeley Springs, which is why Berkeley Springs has its name, Berkeley Springs. And then it shows at the end panel on the industry panel, it will show the outline of Berkeley County, as it is today. So different boundaries, and then what those boundaries contained, and the history they contained, which is vast. And through every panel, at the bottom of every of the 10 foot panels, you’ll see a blue ribbon of mosaic tiles that actually represents the Opequon. And so the Opequon River runs through the entire county from start to finish. So it runs through my entire mural from start to finish. So it also shows the ecology of the county as well as the history.

Walker: And what’s the community response been like to this project so far?

Craigie: So far, wonderful. They released the press release. And the feedback has been great. And people, I think, are very surprised. And we’ve kept it very quiet until this moment.

Walker: As a closing question, I’m just curious: You’re someone who grew up in Martinsburg, grew up in Berkeley County. What does working on a project for your home county mean to you?

Craigie: It means so much. Personally speaking, it just means so much to be able to have this hanging in Martinsburg for years to come, decades to come. And to know that I was able to gift it to the community. I don’t see my murals as my art. It’s my gift to whatever community that art lives in. So to be able to gift my hometown community with my art is just — I don’t really have words. It’s very, very profound and exciting to me.

History Of Martinsburg Mural Coming To Berkeley County, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Berkeley County in 2022 celebrated its 250th anniversary. Now, the county is looking back at its history through a public art lens. By early June, a mural will be on display in the heart of Martinsburg tracing the history and culture of Berkeley County over the years.

On this West Virginia Morning, Berkeley County in 2022 celebrated its 250th anniversary. Now, the county is looking back at its history through a public art lens. By early June, a mural will be on display in the heart of Martinsburg tracing the history and culture of Berkeley County over the years.

Jack Walker spoke with Lea Craigie, the artist behind the new mural, about her public art piece so far.

Also, in this show, we listen to the latest story from The Allegheny Front – a public radio program based in Pittsburgh that reports on environmental issues in the region. Their latest piece looks at proposals to place chemical plastic recycling centers in our region.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Emily Rice produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

The Buzz About Bees And No Hate In My Hollar, Inside Appalachia

This week, we head to the meadows and woods of West Virginia to catch the buzz on beekeeping. And, it’s been over six years since Kentucky artist Lacy Hale designed her iconic “No Hate in My Holler” screen print. Appalachians are still telling her how much they identify with its message. We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and explore some one-of-a-kind getaways in West Virginia.

This week, we head to the meadows and woods of West Virginia to catch the buzz on beekeeping.

And, it’s been over six years since Kentucky artist Lacy Hale designed her iconic “No Hate in My Holler” screen print. Appalachians are still telling her how much they identify with its message.

We also take a ride on the Cass Scenic Railroad and explore some one-of-a-kind getaways in West Virginia.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

The Buzz About Bees In West Virginia
Lacy Hale’s “No Hate In My Hollar”
Glamping It Up With Cass Railroad
Armadillo On My Mind

The Buzz About Bees In West Virginia

Folkways Reporter Margaret McLeod Leef learns about beekeeping in Summers County, West Virginia at the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

We visited among stands of black locust and tulip poplar trees for a report from Folkways Reporter Margaret Leef. She checks in with a community of West Virginia beekeepers.

Lacy Hale’s “No Hate in My Hollar”

In Pound, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, there’s a mural depicting an old woman smoking a pipe and holding a baby wrapped in a big bright quilt. The mural honors Nancy Mullins Shores, a beloved local midwife. It’s part of a growing body of work by artist Lacy Hale, who has been painting murals and turning out viral images from eastern Kentucky for years.

Host Mason Adams visited Hale and talked with her about the mural and “No Hate in My Holler,” a screen print she designed in 2017, in response to a Nazi rally.

Glamping It Up With Cass Railroad

Vickie Yohe, sitting by the fire outside a glamping dome near Alderson, West Virginia.

*Credit: Randy Yohe/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Appalachia is full of odd, off-beat and cool places to rest for the night. West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Randy Yohe and his wife, Vickie, like to get out, travel and explore unusual places to stay.

Randy brought back a story from one of their trips to the Cass Railroad in West Virginia.

Armadillo On My Mind

A lot of times we hear about animals becoming endangered or disappearing, but there are species that are emerging or moving into Appalachia, like the armadillo, which is usually found in the southwest.

In the last few years, armadillos have been spotted in the mountains of western Virginia.

Mason Adams spoke with Seth Thompson, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, who took the first reports of armadillos in the state.

——

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Tim Bing, Tyler Childers, Paul Loomis, and Chris Stapleton.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Kentucky Artist Behind ‘No Hate In My Holler’ Debuts A Mural Featuring A Town’s Legendary Midwife

A mural in Pound, Virginia, depicts Nancy Mullins Shores — a longtime midwife who delivered many of the town’s residents in the 20th century. The mural was designed and painted by Lacy Hale, an eastern Kentucky artist known for painting murals across central Appalachia, including one that garnered controversy for its imagery of an opossum amid pokeweed.

This conversation originally aired in the August 5, 2022 episode of Inside Appalachia.

A mural in Pound, Virginia, depicts Nancy Mullins Shores — a longtime midwife who delivered many of the town’s residents in the 20th century.

The mural was designed and painted by Lacy Hale, an eastern Kentucky artist known for painting murals across central Appalachia, including one that garnered controversy for its imagery of an opossum amid pokeweed.

Hale is probably most known for “No Hate in My Holler,” a screenprint she designed in 2017 that has spread across Appalachia on TV shirts, tote bags and even billboards.

Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams sat down with Hale to find out more about her mural of Nancy Mullins Shores, and the legacy of “No Hate in My Holler.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hale: We had several community meetings to see what the projects were going to be about. And Granny Shores kept coming up: Granny Shores, Granny Shores. I found out that she was a midwife in the very early days of Pound who delivered over 1,000 babies. She was born in 1867 and she passed away in 1945. Her husband was a doctor and she went apparently to some of his appointments with him. That’s how she kind of got into becoming a midwife. She boasted that she never lost a mother and she lost very few babies. Basically everybody early on in Pound, Virginia, was delivered by this woman, Granny Shores.

Adams: In this Granny Shores mural, you see her, but a lot of it’s dominated by this very prominent quilt. Can you tell me more about that?

Hale: Whenever I do a piece of public art, if I’m working with the community, I want the community to be involved. I cut all these pieces of polytab, which is basically parachute material, and we had a community painting day. We let people from the community come and they got to sit down and fill out the quilt any way they wanted to. It was kind of like a modern day quilting bee, I guess.

They could sit there with their own little quilt square and decide how they wanted to make it. It was really cool to see what the community members came up with. I knew once they were installed on the mural itself, that all of these pieces, even though they were very different, would make a cohesive quilt. Just like a community, you know, we’re all different and we can work together and make this place that is vibrant and colorful.

Artist Lacy Hale’s mural, honoring Nancy Mullins Shores, a beloved local midwife in Pound, Virginia. *Courtesy*

Adams: I wanted to ask you about “No Hate in My Holler.” How did you first come up with that design?

Hale: In 2017, I was working with Appalachian Media Institute at Appalshop. We were working with youth, and we got word that a group of neo-Nazis were coming to recruit in Pikeville, which is about an hour from here. One of the youths suggested that we have an art-in-response day, which I thought was awesome. The night beforehand, this phrase just popped into my head: “No hate in my holler.” I do a lot of printmaking, I do a lot of block printing.

The next day we had the art-in-response day, and I just sat down, sketched it out, cut a block, carved it and printed it. I posted it on my Facebook, and it kind of blew up. People really took to it and identified with it. For the last five years it just keeps on cycling and growing — and it’s not always been for the best reasons. Sometimes when something horrible happens, there’s an influx of desire for more t-shirts and stuff. I always donate at least 25 percent of the proceeds from any of the merch sales of “No Hate in My Holler” to nonprofits working toward equality in the region.

Adams: I think it’s like the best of art, in that it’s taken on its own life once you set it free in the world. Now this design is five years old. What do you think it means today?

Hale: Hopefully now we’re at a point where this does not need to be said anymore. And there’s always something new that happens that, okay, so this does need to be said again, or reiterated in some way. “No Hate in My Holler” is probably the piece of artwork that I made that I’m most proud of. If you want to know something about me, look at that piece, and that should tell you all that you need to know.

——

Since this interview was recorded, eastern Kentucky was inundated with historic flooding. The floods saturated Hale’s studio and Roundabout Records, the record store owned by her family. They’ve since relaunched the business with a new name in a new location in Whitesburg, Kentucky. It’s now called “Sisyphus Records.” Its motto? “Let’s try this again.”

The record store is located in EpiCentre Arts’ gallery space on Main Street in Whitesburg.

“We love our town and we never planned on leaving,” Hale said.

For more about Lacy Hale, visit her website, Facebook, or Instagram.

Possum In Kentucky Artist's Mural Reveals Complicated Connection To Marsupial's Symbolism

Scavenger. Trash animal. Chicken killer. Hero. People here in Appalachia have lots of feelings when it comes oppossums — or “possums” as some people call them. A town in Harlan County, Kentucky found this out first-hand when they decided to feature a possum on a mural in their downtown.

It was a clear, sunny day in May and Lacy Hale was putting the finishing touches on a mural destined for a brick wall in downtown Harlan, Kentucky.

Panels of mural fabric sprawled across the floor of Lacy’s workspace. She walked barefoot, bent over, creating sweeping brushstrokes of vibrant greens and deep purples.

Lacy Hale puts the finishing touches on the mural in her workspace in Whitesburg, Kentucky before it is installed in Harlan, Kentucky.

“You know, possums are everywhere. You see them all the time when you’re driving around,” Lacy explained. “They kill ticks, they kill snakes. They’re North America’s only marsupial. So I thought they were super cool animals.”

Lacy worked with high school students and other community partners on the project, which was spearheaded by Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College’s Appalachian Program. Robert Gipe, a staff member of the Appalachian Program, explained that they sought community input on the mural design. “We did a long community engagement process for several months, and we had people giving us ideas for murals all over the county,” Robert said.

Community partners Carrie Billett (left) and April Collins (right) install the mural on the side of Sassy Trash, a retail shop owned by April and her husband Paul Collins in Harlan, Kentucky.

Based on that input, they chose local plants and animals as the mural’s theme. They decided to feature pokeweed as a nod to Harlan’s annual Poke Sallet Festival, which celebrates a dish made from the plant’s leafy greens.

Lacy researched pokeweed and found that it relies on certain animals to spread its seeds.

“One of the biggest proponents of that was the possum, when I was reading about it,” Lacy said. Possums are one of the only mammals that can tolerate the berries’ toxins.

In the mural, a baby possum hangs by its tail from the pokeweed’s purple stem.

‘There Were Just a Lot of Feelings’

This isn’t the first time that possums have been favorably featured in eastern Kentucky’s music and art. For example, WMMT-FM, out of Whitesburg, is fondly nicknamed “Possum Radio.” But not everybody feels so warmly toward these creatures.

A painting of a possum hovers above the on-air studio at WMMT-FM in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which is nicknamed “Possum Radio.”

When Knott County, Kentucky, named the possum their official animal in 1986, some took offense. In a letter to the editor of the local paper, one reader wrote:

“My personal opinion is that an opossum is a very low and unintelligent animal. A scavenger is a better word. This action insults the intelligence of our county and Appalachian area, which we should all love.”

When Robert showed a draft of the mural to college students in his Appalachian Studies class, the possum caused a bit of a stir.

“They felt that this possum would be perceived as a representation of our community and of them. And that they had had negative associations with possums due to [it] often being found dead in the road and in their trash cans. Maybe its rodent-like nature, that seemed to come up in some of the students’ responses. But there were just a lot of feelings,” Robert said.

When Lacy heard about some of the negative reactions to the possum, she was surprised.

“I was completely shocked because I’ve never really encountered anybody that’s been so vehemently against an animal being in a piece of artwork.”

Lacy learned that people associate possums with negative stereotypes about hillbillies that often appear in popular media. For example, the 1960s television show The Beverly Hillbillies regularly featured bits about eating possum.

‘They’re Resilient’

But increasingly, artists from within the region are turning those negative associations inside out. Artists like Raina Rue, the creative force behind Juniper Moon Folk Arts. Raina’s currently based in Winchester, Kentucky, but hails from Irvine.

Raina Rue, of Juniper Moon Folk Arts, sifts through a suitcase full of pins that she designs and makes at her home in Winchester, Kentucky.

She describes her work as “a weird ‘lil hodgepodge of rural queer art you can wear.” Her pins feature pawpaws, rainbows and morel mushrooms, with phrases like “homegrown in the holler,” and “kudzu queer.”

“My top sellers are my possums. I sell more possums than anything else. Which I love. It makes me so happy,” Raina said.

Some of the possums are cute and cuddly, some look tough and ornery. One hangs from a rainbow flag by its tail, another sports a red bandana around its neck.

Amid pins that feature images and words of rural-ness and queer-ness is a possum pin, all by Raina Rue of Juniper Moon Folk Arts.

Raina’s favorite possum design is her most recent.

“He’s punk and he’s wearing a vest that says homesick on the back and he’s crying and smoking a cigarette in a trashy alley.” Raina calls him the Homesick Possum. “It’s kind of like a little ode to displaced country folk,” Raina said.

It’s also a tribute to Appalachia’s DIY arts and punk communities, some of which are embracing the underdog animal as a kind of mascot.

For Raina, the misunderstood possum is more than just a cute, weird little creature.

“They’re resilient, they don’t need any sort of special surroundings to live in. They can live under a truck, or in the woods in a hole in a tree. And I guess I can relate resiliency, scrappiness, all those things to where I come from and the kind of people that I come from.”

Lacy also hopes more people will begin to think possums are awesome. “I would like to see them appreciated for what they are,” she said.

And her wish seems to be coming true, as possums are popping up on jewelry and T-shirts, as tattoos, in memes that possum fans share on social media, and on the now-colorful wall in downtown Harlan.

As Lacy put it, “Possums are in, possums are it, possums are the thing.”

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the theFolklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virignia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stores of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.

Iconic Company Restores Ghost Murals in Appalachia

Long before website banners, T.V. or radio commercials, and electronic billboards there were murals. Coca-Cola Consolidated is working to restore its faded advertisements, or ghost signs, across Appalachia. Ghost signs are the murals painted on buildings at the turn of the century that are now faded disappearing. One of the largest murals, so far was unveiled last week in Hinton in Summers County. Along with the strong sentimental value to the rural residents, the signs still have a strong marketing value for the global company.

Advertisement in Hinton, W.Va. before …

Advertisement in Hinton, W.Va. during restoration …

A mural artist from from Roanoke, Va. worked had assistants to help restore the mural in Hinton, W.Va.

Advertisement in Hinton, W.Va. after restoration …

The mural in Hinton, W.Va. stands 17 feet tall and 60 feet wide, one of the largest ghost signs restored by Coca-Cola Consolidated. It’s one of thousands of Coca-Cola ads painted at the turn of the century, many of them in the rural south.

Like other towns across Appalachia, Hinton now deals with a drug epidemic, empty store fronts, and a high poverty rate. Some folks in the area hope the restoration, brings revitalization to the town.

This mural was painted around 1916 in Hinton, a railroad town that by 1929 had three national banks, two hospitals, ten wholesale firms and seventy-five retail stores.

“Before there was the world famous sign in New York City in Time Square, there was the sign in Hinton, West Virginia. So you can say that that sign in New York was a rip off of the sign right here in Hinton, West Virginia,” said Lauren Steele, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Coca-Cola Consolidated.

The company has restored about 15 murals across three Appalachian states so far. Some of the locations include:

Rocky Mount, VA
Ronceverte, W.Va.
Concord, N.C.
Hendersonville, N.C.
Roanoke, Va.
Salisbury, NC
North Wilkesboro, N.C.
Mebane, N.C.
Hinton, W.Va.
Ronceverte, W.Va.

Coca-Cola plans to complete ghost sign restorations in the following towns:

Monroe, N.C.
Morgantown, W.Va.
Elkin, N.C.
Eden, N.C.
Mt. Airy, N.C.
Cherryville, N.C.
Nashville, Tenn.
Bristol, Va.
Farmville, Va.
Hendersonville, N.C.
Shelby, N.C.
Charleston, W.Va.
Camden Park (an amusement park in W.Va.)

The company expects the list to continue to grow. The mural artists are taking a break during the height of the summer heat. The next restoration project will start up in early Fall.