PHOTO: Art Teacher Creates 40-Foot Mural to Honor American Veterans

A 40-foot mural honoring the nation’s veterans will soon be placed at the Veterans Memorial Park in Davenport, Iowa, thanks to talented citizens.

Davenport West High School art teacher David Schaeffer has worked long and hard on the mural, the Quad-City Times reported Sunday.

Meanwhile, industrial technology teacher Andrew Zinn is working on the frame with help from his students to complete the project.

Although Schaeffer is a seasoned muralist, he has never done one quite so large. Despite the challenge, he was excited to have his “legacy piece” and could not wait to get started.

In 2020, he met with Vietnam veterans Lyle Peterson and Bill Churchill, who serves president of the Friends of Veterans Memorial Park Committee, at the park to discuss the project and how they wanted theirs to be bigger and different than others.

Schaeffer’s final draft and the fact he would be making it 40-feet seemed daunting. But by using technology, he was able to project the images onto panels in order to get started.

“This will be on permanent display right by the river, as part of Veterans Memorial Park. I still have a few panels to go, but this is the progress,” Schaeffer explained in a 2021 post along with images of the paintings:

Followers were quick to applaud his efforts, one person writing, “These are awesome, nice work!”

According to Zinn, it will require more than one day to install the mural, adding he hoped the students would participate.

“It’s huge, and there’s a lot of working parts in play, so there will be multiple phases to the entire project,” he stated.

In January 2022, Schaeffer shared a partial image of the mural and told his followers it was complete:

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A post shared by Dave Schaeffer (@dave.schaeffer.art)

Per the Times, Mayor Mike Matson, who is a retired Army Ranger, is pleased neighbors came together to make the park something even more special.