Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 40
RM | NEIGHBORS
For more than 35 years, Rolla native David Davis has stuck to his self-taught, handmade methods, painting and lettering everything from billboards
and murals to store signs and mailboxes - and a few odd items in between - across Missouri.
SIGNS AT A STROKE
Rolla man carries on hand-painted tradition
by Zach Smith | zsmith@ruralmissouri.coop
adds, recalling the junior high art class where he was first
introduced to the craft. "It's always interested me."
The Intercounty Electric Cooperative member spent a
f you've traveled the main streets and back roads of
few years learning everything he could about the profescentral Missouri, chances are good you've seen Dasion - from the proper materials and tools to how to hold
vid Davis' artwork and not even known it. The mural
a brush - from other painters before striking out on his
welcoming you to downtown Rolla, a car dealership's
own. Over the years he's honed his skills from dozens
window pane or that family farm sign back in the hills
of books on the topic and sought out the advice of local
of Maries County are more than just a hobby for David:
They're modern examples of a profession that
friends who are also sign painters.
"I've got books from six different sign painting
may seem old-fashioned on the surface but has
an enduring charm that endears it to businessschools. There used to be several right here in the
es and passersby alike.
state," David adds. "It was a trade that they taught.
Since 1984, David's one-man studio, Davis
A lot of the cars that were manufactured in the
Rolla
'50s and '60s had hand-painted pinstripes on
Signs, has carried on the calling of the hand-paintthem, and they had to have someone at the faced and hand-lettered sign maker. In an age where
tory who knew how to do that."
a consumer vinyl cutter can be purchased for a few
Farm machinery, fire engines and billhundred dollars from the local hobby story, that
boards, too, often sported some form of handoccupation sounds like a blast from the past. But
painted decoration up until the time David got started in
around central Missouri it's something of a common, if
the business during the early 1980s. Around the same
sometimes unspoken, skill among many. David remembers
time, vinyl signs, which could be printed and installed
the late Tom Pasley, a former Phelps County sheriff, as a
faster, cheaper and by fewer people, started encroaching
great local painter who even hand-lettered the door of his
on hand-painted business. But according to David, a sawhighway patrol unit when he served as a state trooper.
yer at WW Cedar Co. in Vienna by day, his particular skill
"A lot of the classic painters made their side money
isn't in danger of being relegated to the history books.
painting signs - (Thomas Hart) Benton for one," David
I
40
RURAL MISSOURI | AUGUST 2020
Rural Missouri - August 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - August 2020
Contents
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - Contents
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 4
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 5
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 6
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 7
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 8
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 9
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Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 33
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Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 35
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 36
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 37
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 38
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 39
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 40
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 41
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 42
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 43
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 44
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 45
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 46
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 47
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 48
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 49
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - 50
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - August 2020 - Cover4
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