I crossed the Highway 136 bridge back into Iowa and worked my way down maddeningly slow Main Street in Keokuk, a highly engineered but poorly thought out road that put the stop in stoplight. I plodded along toward Montrose, hoping to get there before the local history museum closed at 4.
Guillermo “Memo” Dominguez
I’d make it on time, but it wouldn’t matter. The museum wasn’t even open for its usual Saturday hours, as the city’s annual Watermelon Festival took priority over local history on that day. My detour to Montrose wasn’t a waste of time, though. In front of the museum, Guillermo Dominguez was working on the first mural of six that he will paint on the front of the old warehouse.
Memo, as he prefers to be called, lives in nearby Fort Madison. His wife is the third generation of her family to live in Fort Madison, a family that was among the first to move to small Iowa city from Mexico to work for the railroad back in the 1910s.
Memo at work on the mural
The mural that Memo was finishing up features explorers Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette, the Sauk chief Keokuk, and Fort Des Moines that stood watch over the Mississippi River where Montrose now stands. Future murals will depict the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, as well as the story of the young Sauk woman named Ka-La-We-Quois, whose tragic story captured the imaginations of 19th century Americans.
Painting the mural is more challenging than it looks, given the heat of the sun bearing down on painter and paint, plus choosing the right combination of materials that can withstand several years of pounding from those unforgiving westerly Iowa winds. Memo has a plan, though, and a gift for artistic expression. I’m sure the murals will brighten up the Montrose riverfront for years to com. I look forward to seeing them in finished form, as well as the one on the north side of the building to be painted by Montrose native Janet Rudd, who just happened to be chatting with Memo when I showed up.
Memo’s first mural
If you want to see the work in progress, Memo will be painting a few days a week from now through October-ish. After that, he’s moving to Mexico to open an orphanage, so catch him while you can.
© Dean Klinkenberg, 2015
Enjoyed the article! Hope to see you again:)