Houstonia artist Linda Hoover adds some ‘then’ and ‘wow’ to the Fine Arts Building to lure visitors to the 2nd floor

SYDNEY BRINK/DEMOCRAT

Mural at the Missouri State Fair

The construction staff at the Missouri State Fair built scaffolding for Hoover and a false wall onto which horizontal lines were chalked and Hoover painted over to simulate siding.

SYDNEY BRINK/DEMOCRAT

Mural at the Missouri State Fair

On the first of the fair, Hoover works with spray paint cans instead of paint brushes.

SYDNEY BRINK/DEMOCRAT

Mural at the Missouri State Fair

Linda Hoover consults a photograph of the Grant Wood painting and a photograph of her own mural as she works to blend colors in the glare of the morning sun last week.

SYDNEY BRINK/DEMOCRAT

Mural at the Missouri State Fair

A watercolor by Hoover illustrates the concept for the mural project. The composition has undergone some revisions. For example, Hoover said, "The woman will be holding a spray paint can instead of a paint brush," and it will include graffiti. The mural is also on the northeast side of the building. Hoover plans on completing the project on the tenth day of the fair.

SYDNEY BRINK/DEMOCRAT

Mural at the Missouri State Fair

Houstonia artist Linda Hoover works on the heads of two figures in a mural she is painting on the east side of the Fine Arts Building at the fairgrounds. The two-story mural is a humorous takeoff of Grant Wood's American Gothic painting with a Missouri State Fair connection. Hoover's mural is titled "New American Graffiti". "It is going from gothic to graffiti," she said.

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2012 7:08 pm | Updated: 9:51 am, Wed Aug 15, 2012.

Houstonia artist Linda Hoover adds some ‘then’ and ‘wow’ to the Fine Arts Building to lure visitors to the 2nd floor

Posted on August 10, 2012

by John Hansen

Linda Hoover is accustomed to having an enthusiastic audience for her art: She’s a caricature artist, plus her work helps get Northwest High School fans fired up before sporting events. Her painting of a Mustang adorns the side of a bus barn next to the Hughesville football field and another horse seems to burst through the brick wall of the gymnasium.

But nothing in the Houstonia artist’s career compares to the project she’s undertaking during this year’s Missouri State Fair — at least in terms of sheer scale. Through Aug. 19, on the east side of the Fine Arts Building, she’ll be up on a scaffold painting “New American Graffiti,” a two-story mural based on “American Gothic.”

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