Kelly Gaylord is president of the Punta Gorda Historic Mural Society. She has muralist Keith Goodson on speed dial. She calls him whenever one of the society’s murals fails. She’s had to call him a lot. The society has lost a number of its murals over the course of its 31-year history.
“We’ve lost nine murals to wall issues, like stucco failing or water intrusion, those kind of things,” said Gaylord. “And we’ve lost another 11 when the buildings have been torn down because of hurricanes or redevelopment.”
Losing a mural is about so much more than the art or the money the society has shelled out in artist fees, materials and upkeep.
“Our mission is to preserve our local history through art and education,” Gaylord noted. “We do that with public murals. Each of our murals captures a slice of our local history.”
For example, the society commissioned a mural for the south wall of the historic Charlotte County Courthouse in 2014. It’s dedicated to the life and times of Black landowner George Brown, who sold Charlotte County the land for the courthouse. But within two years, the mural experienced a problem.
“Right after a rainstorm, I was walking down the sidewalk and I looked and saw bubbles forming on the mural,” Gaylord recounted. “I couldn’t believe what it was. They were filled with water …. By the time we actually realized what was going on, most of the mural had lifted from the surface.”
As a stopgap, the mural society took a high-resolution photograph of the mural and printed it on vinyl, which they glued to aluminum panels.
But vinyl doesn’t hold up in Southwest Florida’s intense sunlight and humidity.
So, Gaylord called Goodson.
“Keith Goodson agreed to repaint the mural for us on mural cloth, and so we were able to pull off the vinyl and install the mural cloth,” Gaylord noted. “So, we now, once again, have a hand-painted mural.”
“Basically, it is a very thin type of batten-almost-like material that when we paint it, we prime it and then we paint on top of that primer,” Goodson pointed out.
Goodson could have glued the mural cloth on the wall, but in Punta Gorda, that’s not a great option.
“The majority of our buildings here in town are older, 50-plus years,” Gaylord observed. “We’re on sandy soil. They settle. They crack. We end up having issues with murals a lot.”
So instead, Goodson attached his mural cloth to aluminum panels with a gel that hardens into a protective tile-like veneer.
“It just kind of meshes with the surface,” Goodson noted. “It’s sort of like the paint becomes one with that surface and pretty much indestructible. It’s amazing.”
Goodson has used mural cloth on eight of the society’s murals.
Early on, he and the society’s fabricator bolted the aluminum panels to the side of the building or other wall. Now they use screws that enable the mural society to remove the mural in the event of a major storm.
“We thought that that was one of the positives, where we could say, wow, we have these panels we can remove them if a hurricane’s coming,” Gaylord said. “Actually, for the past several hurricanes, we haven’t removed them and they actually fared better in some cases than the buildings themselves.”
That’s what happened to three murals on the Punta Gorda Boat Club building in Gilchrist Park.
“The storm surge was so severe that it actually breached the windows and the doors of the building and washed all the contents out into the harbor, including the dishes,” said Gaylord. “The mural [was submerged] at least halfway underwater. It came through fine."
There were no issues whatsoever. You just had to wipe it down. Had some dirt on it.”
It’s also imperative to have that option should the building be compromised by future development or other events.
So, Punta Gorda, which has given itself the nickname of “Mural Town,” has decided not to paint murals on buildings or walls any longer.
“We decided all our future murals were going to be removable aluminum panels with mural cloth,” said Gaylord.
MORE INFORMATION:
Murals came in vogue in the United States during the Great Depression, when the Works Progress Administration hired more than 15,000 artists to lift the nation’s spirits.
Today, depressed residential neighborhoods and distressed business districts are using murals to transform buildings and entire neighborhoods into historic and cultural landmarks.
But buildings and walls can be compromised by the elements, including hurricanes.
As noted, “The Life and Times of George Brown” is an illustration of how a structural failure can destroy a mural that is painted on concrete or stucco.
When it came time to replace the mural with a permanent solution, the mural society reached out to Mural Arts Philadelphia, which is a recognized leader in the field of outdoor murals. To Gaylord’s delight, she discovered that Jane Golden and the Philadelphia mural group had quite a bit of experience with mural cloth.
Gaylord learned that mural cloth is more than a synthetic fabric for permanent mural installations. It is also an eco-friendly, bright white polymer fabric substrate designed for maximum durability and outdoor stability.
All the murals in the Punta Gorda Historic Mural Society’s collection tell important stories about local history.
Like “The Life and Times of George Brown.”
Brown (1868-1951) was a master carpenter, cabinet maker and entrepreneur. In the latter regard, he established a business that built and maintained barges for phosphate transport on the Peace River. He and his partner, Peter Miller, began the Brown & Miller Shipyard in 1897. Brown hired his workers based on ability without regard to race. He paid good and equal wages to all in return for their hard work. He is said to be Florida’s first equal opportunity employer.
In 1915, Miller sold his half of the business to Brown. Brown expanded the shipyard, launching the Cleveland Marine Steam Ways in 1916. The expanded shipyard was capable of handling large vessels for prominent yachtsmen who wintered in Charlotte Harbor.
As his business grew, he bought many investment properties in Punta Gorda. He was reported to at one time own half of the land of Punta Gorda.
In 1921, he donated land for the all-Black Masonic Tuscan Lodge 92. He also served on a number church boards. He sold the land the courthouse occupies to newly formed Charlotte County in 1924. This is the site where this mural is located.
The original mural was painted by Michael Vires of Alpine, Texas. He also painted “Cattle Drive Down Marion Avenue” and recreations of “Natural Beauty” and “Movie Memories.”
“Captivating Charlotte County” – Laishley Park Municipal Marina, boat ramp, 120 Laishley Court
The mural society commissioned “Captivating Charlotte County” in 2007 to replace a four-panel mural painted in 1998 by local artist Liz Hutchinson at the entrance to the Best Western (now Punta Gorda Hotel & Suites) that was destroyed by Hurricane Charley on August 13, 2004.
When it was recreated, the location was moved to the Laishley Park Municipal Marina. At that time, Hutchinson redesigned the mural as a larger composite of two of her original four panels, with emphasis on aquatic and bird life.
As was customary, Hutchinson painted the mural directly on the curved concrete wall. Within a year, cracks formed, allowing water to leak through and discolor the mural.
Several attempts were made over the years to repair the cracks and repaint the mural, but the cracks quickly returned each time.
“We needed a solution to get the mural off the problematic wall,” noted Gaylord. “We didn’t want to lose that great highly visible location along the Harborwalk. So, once again we reached out to our local aluminum fabricator, and he designed the curved aluminum panels you see installed today.”
Goodson designed and painted the replacement mural on mural cloth in his studio, keeping the local wildlife theme.
“With mural cloth, what's interesting is I can go in my studio, watch TV, have my dinner, whatever it is, and enjoy the process of painting,” said Goodson.
It eliminates time lost to rain or excessive heat and humidity.
“And when it’s done, it just requires one day to come out and put it up,” he added.
“The mural cloth is typically glued to the aluminum in the studio or a warehouse,” Goodson noted. “But there are occasions where we have to attach the mural cloth to the aluminum in the field. That presents challenges because the gel dries so quickly. When it’s really hot, you can only work in the early morning or late afternoon and you have to work fast and efficiently.”
When he works on site, Goodson will utilize a pop-up tent to keep the panels and gel out of direct sunlight. He applies the gel with a roller to both the front of the aluminum panel and the back of the mural cloth. Regardless of the size of the mural, he will work on only a 4-by-4 or 4-by-5 foot section at one time. That may require him to cut the mural into smaller panels to prevent the glue from drying too quickly.
Whether a mural is painted on concrete or mural cloth that’s glued to aluminum, the keys to longevity are using a top-quality sealer and regular maintenance.
Goodson noted a handful of disadvantages to using mural cloth on aluminum panels.
Depending on size and whether the panels are flat or curved, they can cost several thousand dollars. So muralists and mural societies often opt for smaller panels.
But Goodson especially misses interacting with the public as he’s painting on site.
“People like to come out and meet the artists,” he noted. “People like to come out, see the progress and ask questions.”
It was the society’s second project using permanent aluminum panels and mural cloth. It has gone through Hurricanes Ian, Idalia, Helene and Milton and come through relatively unscathed.
“Harbor Bridges” — Laishley Park Municipal Marina, dumpster enclosure, 120 Laishley Court
The Laishley Park Municipal Marina is also the location of a couple of other murals, including “Harbor Bridges.”
This was the society’s fifth mural cloth project and second removable aluminum panel project.
Liz Hutchinson painted the original mural directly on the wall in 2008 and it suffered from the same issues as the other mural painted at this site, namely cracks in the stucco and discoloration.
“With anything on any structure over time, especially on stucco block, you’re going to get cracking over a period of years,” Goodson noted. “The worst case scenario is the rain and the water penetrating through those cracks and lifting the paint off the stucco.”
Here again, the solution was to install a new mural painted on aluminum panels on top of the existing mural.
“When we replaced the mural, we were able to expand the footprint of the mural to both walls because we were using the aluminum panels,” Gaylord said. “This allows the mural to be seen by more visitors.”
The panels were installed in 2024 and subsequently went through hurricanes Helene and Milton. With Milton, it was completely submerged but came through just fine.
The keys to longevity, added Goodson, are good structure, good paint and a good sealer.
“These are the three main factors in doing an outdoor painting.”
“Boating in Paradise” – Punta Gorda Boat Club, 802 W. Retta Esplanade
The Punta Gorda Boat Club building was constructed in 1960. It sits right on the harbor and so it is at high risk for flooding.
“When the boat club approached us about doing a mural, we were a little hesitant because the boat club itself, this building, is 66 years old,” Gaylord conceded. “We tend to stay away from older buildings. It's also very low to the ground and can flood from time to time. So, we had to get creative.”
This time, the mural society decided to design removable aluminum panels for the three murals it commissioned for this location.
“We had been doing aluminum panels before, but they'd been affixed, actually attached to the wall, couldn't come off,” Gaylord explained. “So, we reached out to our fabricator, and he got creative. He created panels that could be removed and that was the only way we could actually do this mural, is to do panels that could be removed.”
It was the first removable mural the society installed and the third employing mural cloth.
“The building itself being as old as it is, we were worried that in the future, they might tear it down and build a new one,” Gaylord continued. “But also, the fact that we do get hurricanes and this is right on the harbor, we wanted to have the flexibility to be able to remove the panels if we wanted to, if a hurricane was approaching.”
The mural was installed in the summer of 2022.
The mural society elected not to remove the panels as Hurricane Ian approached. The decision was fortuitous as Ian damaged the roof and the building’s contents. By contrast, the mural came through the storm fine with only small black tar spots from the roof covering the surface of the mural. Gaylord reports that they were easily removed with Dawn and a little filtered water.
Given this experience, the Society once again opted to leave the panels in place for Hurricane Milton. That storm generated between 5 and 10 feet of surge. The inundation breached the building’s windows and doors, washing most of the contents into the harbor. Once again, the mural came through unscathed even though the lower half of the murals was submerged for a period of time.
Once again, the sludge from the river was easily removed using Dawn and some filtered water.
The larger concern for these murals is how they are faring in the intense Southwest Florida sunlight, especially given their southern exposure.
“In fact, you can see some fading on it already,” Gaylord pointed out. “Keith [Goodson] has to come back and do some touch-ups.”
Specifically, the red pigment he used in the murals has faded to a light pink.
But even a small amount of maintenance costs money in terms of artist fees and materials, including sealant and top coats.
“So for every mural we create, we put money into a maintenance reserve,” Gaylord remarked. “But at the end of the day, when we’ve had the kind of hurricanes that we’ve had, we don’t always have enough money. So we do fundraisers from time to time to raise money for maintenance as well.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
