Student artist displays mural on Vitello’s bar

    If you are one of the many locals or students who frequent Vitello’s Restaurant and Bar, you may not associate it with art.
    Take a closer look at the bar you lean across while shouting for drinks, however, and you will see the work of a fellow Murray State student.
    Daniel Willis, junior from Mayfield, Ky., created the image on the bar using a technique called pyrography or woodburning.
    Willis said he drew the image on Vitello’s bar freehand using colored pencils. He then used a special woodburning tool, which is like a soldering iron with a wedge tip.
    The tip heats up to nearly 900 degrees, Willis said. It burned the picture into the wooden surface, and he used water-based wood stains for the coloring.
     The job at Vitello’s resulted from a conversation with manager Jason Fulcher. After mentioning the idea of creating a piece for the bar Willis said Fulcher was very receptive to it.
    “He said he wanted it to be bar-themed, so then I came up with the drawing design,” Willis said. “It took about two working days to complete. I worked on it in between classes.”
    Willis said he was able to work on the piece during customer hours, while people sat at the bar beside him because the process creates almost no noise and very little smoke.
    The picture features typical bar staples such as a martini glass, a beer stein and an ashtray. A special touch Willis added was the wall of bottles.
    Instead of drawing typical labels on them, he drew in the names of people who were in the bar while he was working. 
    “There are about 40 bottles behind the bar with actual students’ names on them,” Willis said. “It will probably be here longer than any of us will.”
    To see more of Willis’ work, go to his Web site at ltatdesigns.com or contact him at daniel willis@ymail.com.
    Contact Akers at crystalakers@murraystate.edu.    
 

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