BYRDSTOWN, Tenn. (WTVF) — When he's finished with a piece, artist Ron Sweeney will add his signature. Inquiring minds want to know, how does he decide when a piece is finished?
"It'll tell me when it is," Sweeney said between painting a wall.
Well, there you go.
The canvas this time was the side of Logan's Heating and Cooling in Byrdstown, Tennessee. People would often stop and watch him work.
"Hey, Sweeney, it just keeps getting better and better!" one man shouted from his car.
"Every painting I do is personal," Sweeney continued. "My mother was born here. I wanted to do something in the town she was born."
This piece in his mom's hometown also honors Sweeney's dad.
"Military was our life," he remembered. "I was born in it. We lived on Fort Campbell. My dad was a Vietnam veteran. Jerald Sweeney. He was in the 101st. He was with the Screaming Eagles."
Sweeney remembers from his childhood how worried he was when his dad left for Vietnam.
"I actually wrote the president a letter to send my dad back home," Sweeney remembered. "I told him a year was enough. Actually, a year was too much. His reply back letter was my dad was doing what he signed up for and that was to protect our country. He was doing his job. My dad did come back, yes, but I had a friend right around the corner that his father didn't make it."
Sweeney's dad died in 2016. It's the memories of his dad's time serving that has inspired this new piece.
"I want it to be bigger than me," Sweeney nodded.
Sweeney had a plan to do that.
Sweeney got the word out to a whole bunch of veterans. A huge crowd gathered outside Logan's Heating and Cooling.
"What I'd like for you to do is sign your name, the branch of your service, and maybe a year of your service," Sweeney called out to the veterans. "It's your wall, okay?"
"I've asked the VFW and the veterans of Pickett County to come by and autograph it," Sweeney continued. "I just wanted everybody to feel like they had a part of this wall.
Sweeney walked over to add his signature. This time, he was not only adding his name. He was adding his dad's.
Sweeney's mural will greet people as they drive into his mom's hometown. Anyone who takes a closer look will see all those signatures.
"I wanted to give something to the veterans for their service," Sweeney said. "I wanted something to present to them for the 250th anniversary of America. I just want them to be proud of what they see here."
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