In late 2019, Walmart decided to host a competition at stores across the United States for artists in an attempt to make their stores more appealing to local communities. Artists were asked to create a mural that represented their respective towns or cities, utilizing whatever medium they preferred. I decided to enter this competition on the last possible day, New Year's Eve, and spent the last several hours of 2019 in Adobe Illustrator creating my entry. I chose to use Illustrator because its many tools suited my vision of the completed piece, and I knew that the final product would need to be digitally converted, regardless of medium. I was not originally given dimensions to work off of, so I originally created the mural as the standard 1920 x 1080 and then converted and adapted the compositions to suit a square and the final dimensions when asked.
I received the news that my mural was chosen a few months later, and the mural was installed in my local Walmart in late April 2020. The mural is titled "A Walk Down De Soto Main Street" because it features many of the most distinct local monuments, which can all be seen from De Soto's Main Street. De Soto is a train town, and trains are ingrained all throughout De Soto's history and heritage, so I knew that a train should be prominently displayed. Also included are the historic Melba Theatre that has been a part of the community for more than 70 years and the fountain that stands outside of De Soto's City Hall. De Soto is also known as the Fountain City for using its many fountains to provide water to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, so a fountain was also integral to illustrate.
