Local artist to be memorialized Saturday

 BYROBINHALL

Publisher

[Angela Guillory also contributed

to this article.]

He was not a man who loved the spotlight and you may not recog­nize his face, but Brad Attaway has certainly left his mark on Cass County. Through his art, his passion for art, music and Cass County will live on.

Local and regional artist Brad Attaway will be memorialized Saturday. The artist passed away late last week.

Attaway, who is responsible for many of the works that beautify Linden, Atlanta and other cities in the area, such as Jefferson and Hughes Springs, passed away at his home last Wednesday, Feb. 17.

The 61-year-old artist had been commissioned frequently and was known to his friends and loved ones as a man with tremen­dous talent and passion for art, music and his home.

Attaway, a Linden native, com­pleted four murals in downtown Linden. Those include the T-Bone Walker mural on the side of the Linden fire station on Houston Street, the Evening Primrose Mu­ral in front of Texana Bank and the backdrop at Music City Tex­as Theater, as well as the Music City Texas fiddle mural, which he completely refurbished in 2013.

He has completed similar proj­ects in Atlanta, Jefferson (Annie Skinner’s), Omaha (Brahma), Hughes Springs and Mt. Pleasant.

Last year, Attaway repainted the veterans plaza walls in Atlan­ta in 2015.

His work also includes several murals located in and around the Linden-Kildare CISD campuses as well.

In the summer of 2014, Attaway completed a mural featuring the

 Paul Pewitt Schools and the 1998 Texas State championship Brahmas football team.

He had currently been commissioned to paint several more works for Atlanta businesses, which he had yet to com­plete.

The fiddle mural in downtown Linden is likely his most well-know work, located on the side of the old capi­tal florist building on the corner of Houston and Kaufman Streets.

Attaway was commis­sioned by Linden Eco­nomic Development Corporation (LEDC) to restore the mural he had originally painted in 2001.

As reported in the Cass County Sun, at that time, Attaway told The Sun he had seen a vision of what the side of the building could look like as visitors and passers­by drove through down­town Linden.

He said the idea came to him in 2000, two years prior to MCT getting the American Legion build­ing.

“When it was just an idea but a good idea,” At­taway emphasized about the concept of the MCT Theater.

With an idea and little financial support At­taway got permission from the building owner to paint the mural. He spent $2,000 in paint and labor to make his vision come to life on the side of what then was the Capital Florist Building.

Attaway said the mid­dle came before anything else. He knew the center piece had to be long and narrow. He said a violin or fiddle came to mind first noting that stringed instruments are com­mon in the back ground of every genre of music.

“It was a perfect fit,” Attaway said. “The rest just came together.”

The sheet music is of a song from the hymnals, “In the Garden.” On the mural is the lyric “I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses.”

The yellow roses, a symbol of Texas, have dew drops clearly visi­ble. He painted a book­shelf in the background.

Attaway continued to add little touches to the mural after its comple­tion.

It took approximately 250 hours to paint the mural with assistance from Larry Penny and his nephew Jesse Lans­dales. He used 30 gallons of semi-gloss latex house paint.

Prior to the restoration of the fiddle mural, it was featured in a tele­vision commercial for Dairy Queen.

Attaway said in 2013 that he was surprised when he was contacted by the Dairy Queen ad agency for permission to use the mural in an upcoming commercial. When he saw the com­mercial he was thrilled.

He said using the fiddle mural in the commer­cial makes perfect since.

“It was about Texas and music and you can’t talk about Texas and music without mentioning Lin­den with our local heri­tage, including T-Bone Walker, Don Henley and Scott Joplin,” Attaway told The Sun.

Attaway hoped that someday the city would have an outdoor seating area in front of the mu­ral where visitors could relax.

Attaway painted pro­fessionally for 40 years. He started in high school painting signs and he lat­er attended Texas State Technical Institute in Waco where he earned a graphic arts degree. He worked for Joske’s Department Stores in Houston at their art de­partment for about two years.

Early in his career he painted numerous mu­rals and billboards in Houston and the Gal­veston area. Attaway also painted murals for Schlotzsky’s at 84 stores in 21 states plus the District of Colum­bia. During that six-year time period he drove 250,000 miles.

“That is enough miles to go around the equa­tor 10 times and I end­ed up back in Linden,” Attaway had once told The Sun, “what are the odds?”

“ He saw colors differ­ently than anybody I’ve ever known,” Brad’s brother Greg said this week. “He knew what a color would do. He saw more than just what was in front of him. He loved art. It was his avocation as well as his vocation,”

The life of Bradley Earl Attaway will be celebrat­ed at 2 p.m., Saturday February 27, 2016 at Mu­sic City Texas. Memori­als may be made to Mu­sic City Texas, P.O. Box 893, Linden, TX 75563.