This number will likely be out-dated by the time anyone reads this but I literally have 21,032 pictures on my phone. Like most people, I take a lot of pictures on my phone. I like having them accessible for various things like building a graduation photo wall the day before the party. Using the facial recognition feature to find an embarrassing photo to share on a person’s birthday. And as a reminder of all the cool places I have visited and interesting things I have seen.
If there is one background that is repeated time and time again in not only my pictures but pictures I see others sharing on social media, it is murals.
People love taking pictures of murals and in front of murals. Sometimes it is the simple beauty of the painting that captures your attention. Perhaps it is the interaction with a set of wings painted in an alley. Or it may be a “how did they create that?” on the wall.
Murals help visitors connect and remember the communities they are visiting. And perhaps more importantly, murals create an environment where residents want to live. Afterall, we all want to live in pretty places.
Murals also help set the stage for a community, giving a sense of what a community believes in or maybe the history of a town. And murals simply make a community more aesthetically pleasing with the designs, colors and creativity.
McCook is fortunate to have several murals in place.
During the Covid lock-down, artists were engaged to paint murals as a way to bring the community together. Deonne Hinz and Ginny Anderson were commissioned to paint the “We Are One” floral design on the sidewalk in front of Sehnert’s Bakery, which then led to other murals around the community during the lock-down.
Next was the McCook Mural Project, which was painted on the wall along West First Street in the spring of 2023.
There were lead artists, Darcy Millette and Amber Hansen, who lead design workshops with community members to create drawings, write poems, and share stories that shaped the mural’s themes and content. The lead artists also worked with the assistants, Karrie Steely and Wes McCollum, and student apprentices to create a final composition utilizing the material collected at the design workshops.
By the time the mural was completed, more than 100 community members had participated in the process in one form or another, from lending their thoughts to the design to picking up a paint brush. And in May 2025, the final clear coat over the entire half-long block was added to help keep the mural in pristine condition as long as possible.
This multi-step process was intentional because the mural had another purpose other than just painting a mural on the one wall. The mural project was designed to help others learn how to create a mural, bringing more color to the walls of McCook.
And Karrie Steely is using her experience in the McCook Mural Project to bring more murals to McCook. She is gathering people who want to be part of the next mural project, which is planned for this summer. A building is already lined up and funding is getting in place. What the project needs now are people, all types from artists with ideas for a design to people who like paperwork because it's all necessary to make these projects happen.
While most of the murals to-date have been fairly large in scale, McCook also needs smaller murals around the community for people to interact on a daily basis.
Karrie has addressed this issue by creating a how-to workbook for anyone who would like to do their own mural project, especially small-scale murals. It includes a timeline, what paints to use, how to contact a building owner along with other resources to make a mural a reality.
To get involved in McCook’s mural projects, please contact Karrie at 303-257-4763 or karrie.steely@gmail.com. Or visit the McCook Creative District website, mccookcreativedistrict.com, where you can find the mural workbook.
The more people get involved in the mural projects around McCook, the more murals we will have. And the more murals we have around McCook, the more pictures visitors will take and the more pride in the community residents will have.
