Designs revealed for 2022 Mountains and Murals festival as Walldogs prepare to fly Down Under

Excitement is building in Mt Barker for the second instalment of the Mountains and Murals festival after the designs for the new murals to be created were unveiled on Thursday. The festival first ran in 2019 when international artists from the Walldogs mural collective travelled to Mt Barker to decorate the town with their art. The Walldogs are a collective of sign painters and mural artists from across the globe. They meet each year in a town in the US to convey the history of the area in large-scale murals. David Johnson, the former officer in charge of Mt Barker Police Station, is the organiser of the festival and a Walldogs member. “We are just a loose collective, like a tribe,” Johnson said. “We get to meet once a year in America and paint historic murals — obviously now we have come to Mt Barker as well.” Johnson said the festival aimed to attract visitors to Mt Barker. “We are in a part of the world that has amazing coastline around Albany and Denmark,” he said. “We needed something different. “We’ve got the mountains and the Porongurups, but we needed something to get tourists off the highway and into our town.” This year’s festival will be the first in three years after COVID-19 put international travel on hold. “These artists are coming at their own cost to our part of the world to paint,” Johnson said. “We feel very honoured and privileged.” This year, the Walldogs contingent will include Elaine Wallis from Niagara Falls, Mike McEvers from Indiana, Joy Hernandez from Indianapolis, Dan Luckin from Essex, Noella Cotnam from Ontario, Jay Allen from Illinois, Loraine Lamb-Lalonde from Quebec, and Walldogs founder Nancy Bennett from Iowa. The murals have been designed by the artists and will be completed from November 16-20 with the help of the Mt Barker community. Allen, who also took part in the inaugural Mountain and Murals festival in 2019, will be speaking at a long-table dinner on November 19. At a community meeting last Thursday, the Walldogs revealed their six designs, including the design for the entrance billboard which will be situated at the northern entrance to the town designed by Elaine Wallis. The seventh design, the community mural which will be painted by the Mount Barker community in Wilson Park was also revealed. Shire president Chris Pavlovich said having the murals dotted around town gave the community a sense of identity and pride, while boosting the local economy. “The locations of the murals have been carefully selected to form a trail that encourages visitors to grab a coffee or takeaway meal and explore the sites,” Cr Pavlovich said.