Greer Opry, acrylic on board, 15" x 36"

The Greer Opry House is a family owned, country western and bluegrass music venue near the new Greer City Hall complex. This old sign atop the entrance no longer stands. Hopefully, it’s been removed for refurbishment. I did the painting above from some sketches and photos I took several years ago.

What attracted me to the sign is its straightforward communication. The high-flying emblematic cowboy boot on top is instantly recognizable by—as we say in advertising—its target demographic. Anybody who’s ever proudly worn such footwear, or even just wished they could, knows right away this is a place they might like to be. And nothing says country music like the word “opry”.

But what makes a good sign doesn’t necessarily make good art. A good sign should get its message across quickly. Good art should hold some surprises. How could I have some fun making art from this minimalist sign? I noticed the contrast between the solid looking, dark brown upright slab with its well-fed chunky white lettering against the rather delicate, derrick-like steel rod tower that supports it. And the angles in the tower reminded me that, standing on the sidewalk looking up at the sign, everything appears at an angle in perspective. So I played with angles. Except for the two outside edges of the back board (which help establish true vertical), everything else tips one way or another. Even the cut out dimensional pieces of the front canopy roof and the sign itself are mounted at slight angles away from the background. The fun for me was in visually balancing all this so that it still looks like a perfectly upright and otherwise ordinary sign.