City of Darlington announces Southern 500 mural to be repaired in early September
Blue Sky, famed mural artist from Columbia, poses near his mural at the Southern 500 Mural Celebration at Liberty Lane on April 9, 2014 prior to the Bojangles’ Southern 500 race at the Darlington Raceway.
The City of Darlington sent out the following press release regarding the Southern 500 mural visible from Pearl Street in Darlington:
Parts of the mural have faded in short order since the mural was completed in late spring 2014, and the City has negotiated with the artist to repaint those faded portions. Those sections of the mural included a depiction of the race winner kissing a beauty queen and the action during a pit stop.
The Southern 500 mural was completed about eight weeks behind schedule thanks to several weather delays in February and March of that year.
The mural, done in a graphic novel style, tells how the Lady in Black came to be, describes how the race track was conceived and constructed, and relives some of the early races from the viewpoint of those brave drivers. Additionally, the artist made touch ups to the Old Darlington mural on South Main Street as part of that contract.
Blue Sky has long said Darlington has been his biggest supporter and that he feels like it’s his second home.
The project was presented to City Council at the December 2013 council meeting and approved in January 2014 after a public comment period in which no one from the public submitted comments, positive or negative.
