SEARCY, Ark. — It's impossible to stand in downtown Searcy and not see a symptom of mural-itis.
And not just on highly visible buildings—even out of the way places like an ordinary alley that is made extraordinary by people infected with a desire to paint the town.
Many people say that's is where it all started for Searcy: an alley. The artwork began after a Harding art instructor and his students wanted to help Searcy get the big picture.
Standing on a mechanical lift to reach the top of walls is an everyday commute for Jason White.
Adams had only three days to finish his latest project, but he took time out to show us how he's infected the community.
"I finished this one about two and a half weeks ago and organically it has reached over 5,000 people," White said, referencing a mural of the American flag.
Another mural of White's is a hunter looking for bear discovers Sulfur Springs, Searcy's original name. "This one represents the history of Searcy from our founding to our present and to our future, honestly."
The ox represents Searcy's agriculture depicting the city's three main crops: strawberries, soybeans and cotton.
Then, an iron horse symbolizing trains. The elephant? "The elephant just kind of represents our productivity our growth."
As for White, it's remarkable he's doing all that he is.
"I just always had a fear of really pursuing it. I've let that fear really stop me all my life," White said. "Any time I would start to get momentum, I would back away."
Four years ago he painted bank windows and that gave way to murals and the boy too scared to fully commit to art is now a man with a stacked schedule.
"Three to five months booked up right now."
Watching him in action on the mural he's working on now, you'd never know he had ever been intimidated.
If Jason painted a mural based on his life, he said it would be something going from darkness to light. "Fear overshadows things so much. To be able to overcome something like that, I would want to paint something that would just really tell that story and encouraged everybody they could do the same thing regardless of what it is."
The mural of his story is the moral of this one.
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