Nevada; Nevada Row

Nevada or Nevada Row is a collaborative mural by artists Joe C. Rock and Erik Burke that showcases "...people who made a significant impression on Nevada through unconventional ways. Portraits in blue (the color of the Nevada flag) represent Nevada natives and warm-toned portraits represent outsiders that accomplished something significant in or for Nevada" (eriktburke.com). A wooden arrow with a black obsidian arrowhead runs right to left behind the portraits, spanning the entire 250 x 20 foot mural. The portraits, from left to right, are as follows: Frederic DeLongchamps, one of Nevada's most prolific architects; Dot So La Lee, a basket weaver and member of the northwestern Nevada Washoe; Wovoka, a Paiute religious leader; Ben Palmer, one of the original settlers of and most successful ranchers in the Carson Valley; Michael Heizer, a contemporary artist whose life-long project, City, is "the largest piece of contemporary art ever attempted" (http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/city/)"; Jeanne Wier, founder of the Nevada Historical Society; Abraham Lincoln, whose re-election in 1864 was largely due to Nevada's expedited entry into statehood; Jack Johnson, who, after winning a bout against James Jeffries in Reno, NV in 1910, became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion; Sarah Winnemucca, a Northern Paiute activist from Nevada; and Mark Twain, who lived and wrote for a newspaper in Virginia City and Carson City, NV in the early 1860s. Each portrait contains a detail pertaining to the individual, for example: buildings on top of DeLonghamps' head; a basket behind the top of Dot So La Lee's head; a brand surrounded by barbed wire on top of Palmer's head; Heizer wears a hat that appears sculpted from metal to symbolize his work as a sculptor; a rendering of the Nevada Historical Society in the broach pinned to Weir's collar; the US Highway sign imposed on Lincoln's head is symbolic of his namesake, US Route 40; a rendering of Johnson knocking Jeffries out during the championship bout; and the top of Twain's head represented as an open book, and a quill pen over his right shoulder.