Robert Dafford Mentors the Next Generation of Painters

RIVER & RAIL

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by Elena Wrye

Renowned muralist Robert Dafford completes the final floodwall mural while bringing a new generation of painters along with him

UCKED AWAY, YET ON FULL display, between the charming streets of downtown Paducah and the steady waters that make up the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, lies Paducah’s historic floodwall. T Constructed between August 1939 and July 1949, it stands as a guardian between the waters that lie in its midst and the life that bustles along the streets of Paducah - offering protection from rising river levels such as those of the historic 1937 flood. And yet while it stands as a barrier to potential peril, it also serves as an open door to years of Paducah’s history as it depicts pivotal moments in the city’s story through masterful murals painted by Robert Dafford and his team of muralists. The line of murals stretches for three blocks along Water Street and, as of this summer, is now complete. The remaining ten floodwall panels that Paducah Wall to Wall has always envisioned completing have sat patiently waiting behind Locomotive 1518 that sits on the tracks next to the Carson Center. A location that would seem difficult to procure a sponsor for. “Finding sponsors for behind the train, we thought would be a challenge – because you have to get out and walk and make a real effort to view it. It’s not something you drive by, then turn around and can come back and see,” Paducah Wall to Wall Executive Director Ro Morse says. “But it’s so worth our rail history. It’s just unbelievable how we connected the North and the South here in Paducah.” The mural’s subject matter is that of the map that showed the main path for The City of New Orleans – the train that traveled from New Orleans to Chicago, with Paducah strategically located in the middle. When the project became possible due to a generous donation from the family of Wally O. and Gerry Montgomery, conversation began taking place of what the mural could look like, and Dafford and fellow muralist Herb Roe made a sketch to follow suit. A sketch made in the Summer of 2016 at Paducah’s Barbeque on the River is one that was carried through the years until things “finally came together,” as Ro says, in 2022. Dafford and his team of muralists gladly returned to Paducah to complete the three-block project with the new mural conception. However, this time, they had a new set of recruits. The Dafford mural masterclass played host to nine students from seven different states. States such as Michigan, Illinois, Washington, New Jersey, and Arkansas were represented as students of all ages made their way to Paducah to sit under the tutelage of Dafford and work in accordance with his team. The workshop, Dafford’s first to teach, was in conjunction with West Kentucky Community and Technical College and the Paducah School of Art and Design. Applicants for the masterclass had to be well-versed in the art of mural painting to keep up with the distinguished work that was needed to create the murals at hand. “All of them had painted murals, all of them had some experience, so they were pretty advanced. We were able to move from lectures to the studio right away. I had developed an exercise for them to do that taught them each aspect of my process. Then we came out here (the floodwall) the end of the first week and they actually helped prepare, seal, and draw the first three panels, and then the next three panels,” Dafford says as he recaps his masterclass. “They got the experience of doing the layout. We put up a grid drawing, and most of this was transferred from period maps. We drew a to-scale grid on the maps, and on the wall, and they transferred the boundaries and some of the railroad tracks and rivers and such. So, they actually helped get this started.”

The drawings were provided to the muralist team by Jack Johnson at the Railroad Museum – furnishing the artists with maps of the railroad that showed the main path of The City of New Orleans. Dafford’s goal in the teaching of the masterclass? To spread the knowledge of mural painting that he has, and also to look for new apprentices. Experienced in his craft, Dafford recognizes the art that’s being done today and its lack of longevity with the products and techniques being used. The 12-day masterclass brought not only a learning experience and a new mural to complete Paducah Wall to Wall’s Portraits of Our Past, but it also brought community. And community, along with community service, is one of Dafford’s passions. “I’m completely bent towards community service. I like this kind of project. I like getting to know everybody. I like being a part of the community. The work we’re doing reflects who you are, not who I am,” he says. Masterclass students were submerged into the welcoming arms of Paducah’s downtown and Lowertown communities, and Dafford made sure to foster community within their class as well. At the end of the workshop, Dafford (a resident of Lafayette, Louisiana) cooked an authentic Cajun meal of shrimp etouffee and a chicken sausage sauce piquant for all of the students to commemorate the ending of a successful class. Shand (one of the masterclass students) and Mitch Stamper happily opened their home for the meal, making room for a grand finale to the course and an opportunity to say goodbyes amongst the students. As Paducah was a vital stop in the connection of the City of New Orleans train route between the North and the South, it is even more so to numerous other routes of transportation today. Paducah residents and visitors alike are invited to view the 200 ft. long section of new murals, located beside the Carson Center, and learn more about our city’s railroad history.