Murals sprout along empty buildings in Lamar

While new businesses have opened in Lamar in the last two years, several empty storefronts still line Main Street. On Monday, some of those buildings got a bit of a facelift as Andrea LaHue turned red, yellow and blue paint into giant flowers on the sides of these vacant buildings.

“It’s a service for the community,” LaHue said as she sketched the beginnings of a lily in yellow on one panel of the McCoy building. “I paint giant flowers to uplift, inspire, beautify and make people smile on a basic level.”

Through her project, Random Acts of Flowers, LaHue has done more than 60 paintings in more than 28 cities during her two cross country trips. Sunday, she did a painting in Pamplico and earlier Monday a sunflower on the side of a former barbershop.

“Most people ask for sunflowers more than anything else,” she said.

LaHue said she does state flowers when she can. Her favorites are lilies, but she said, “I see what the building calls for.”

The McCoy building, owned by David McCoy the guitarist of Mudfish Jones, looked like it needed a set of lilies to her. “Three lilies seemed better than mixing it up,” she said.

The paintings are generally on “For Lease” or vacant buildings. Usually people appreciate her work that detracts from what once may have been seen only as an eyesore.

“[The building owners] don’t mind because people see a pretty flower not a yucky building,” La Hue said.

During her journey she said she wants to get to the top 10 economically hard hit areas. Lamar was on her route from Charlotte to Jacksonville.

“I was filled with the inspiration to uplift America,” she said. Her brother was in Afghanistan, and her father retired from the Army when she asked herself, “What can I do to uplift the country?”

Painting was her answer.

“Everywhere I’ve been the city gets something out of it,” she said.

Lamar will too.

Victor Pizzuro, the town’s director of development and planning, said he would like to see a mural on every wall possible and use them to drive tourism to the town. He wants to create a brochure that locates the various murals throughout Lamar and tells a little about each artist. Though that’s not LaHue’s focus.

“It’s not about me,” she said. “Usually people don’t know me, so it’s just the flower that’s left.”

In a few short hours, a trio of lilies brightened the wall on Main Street, and LaHue left no richer. She’s generally not paid, and she stays with friends or where she can. Katherine Fugate, writer/creator of "Army Wives," bankrolled the project, so anything LaHue does receive she puts toward the next city.

“My intention is to beautify,” La Hue said.

On Tuesday, she continued her trip to Jacksonville, Fla., to be followed by Orlando and Tampa. You can follow her journey at http://crosscountryrandomactsofflowers.blogspot.com/.

LaHue lives in Los Angeles. Her work appears as the character Lily’s painting on the FOX prime time show How I Met Your Mother, her satirical political paintings, the CNN series, were covered by the Associated Press and appeared in newspapers worldwide, and she was mentioned in renowned art collector Richard Wiesman’s book, From Picasso to Pop as “an artist to watch for.”