Portrait of a Hero Mural Event
Come Paint With Us
The program/project is called “PORTRAIT OF A HERO”
PORTRAIT OF A HERO produces indoor and outdoor murals for communities, corporations, industries, NGO’s, schools, universities, and private individuals. The murals are a unifying community art project. We use community members to paint individual one-foot square tiles that are assembled in a grid to form the large scale painted portrait.
The primary goal of the mural is to create a connection between hero or heroine and community. Each artist personalizes their tile with their name, which records their participation and bonds them to the community experience. It reinforces the story of the hero or heroine. As the community views an iconic portrait of their family member or cultural leader captured on such a large scale, it creates strong feelings of pride. Pride leads to feelings of well-being, unity, and gives a community a greater sense of self-identity. There is a great cohesive power of having strong common heroes. Participation gives feelings of accomplishment that lead to desire to complete other goals in life.
The event is conducted by artist Stephen Bennett. www.stephenbennett.us
About Robert “Bob” Rompre:
Robert was born on April 11, 1929 in International Falls, MN to Elmer & Martha (nee Reine) Rompre. Bob’s passion for hockey began at a young age and he was excited to be offered a scholarship to play center ice for Colorado College. Bob was drafted by the United States Marines and would have been sent to Korea if he had not tried out for and made the United States Olympic Ice Hockey Team. The 1952 Olympics in Oslo, Norway were especially memorable to the “Flying Finn” as Bob not only helped his team win an Olympic Silver Medal, but he also set an Olympic record for scoring four goals in one game. After playing in the Olympics, he had an offer to play professional hockey for the New York Rangers, but instead he decided to finish his college career.
Stephen Bennett Bio/info: Stephen Bennett is an American portrait painter who has traveled to over 40 countries in the last 30 years. He seeks out indigenous and traditional people to capture their faces with colorful paintings around the world. www.stephenbennett.us
