For years, the large wall facing E. Houston Street at Cleveland General Hospital was easy to overlook. It was plain, aging and hardly the kind of thing that made passing motorists take a second look. That has changed.
A sweeping new mural now covers the two-story space at 908 E. Houston St., bringing a burst of red, white and blue to the newly reopened hospital and giving artist Cherry Meekins the largest canvas of her career.
The funny thing is, Meekins was not originally supposed to paint it.
When Meekins, owner of Meek Cherry Artistry, first met with hospital CEO Paul McCutchen, they were considering other areas of the building for a mural. She took photographs during her visit and went home to begin working on ideas, but there was one part of the hospital she could not get out of her mind.
“My eyes just couldn’t get over how ugly that white wall was,” Meekins said.
She decided that if they really wanted to change the appearance of the hospital, they could not leave the most visible wall untouched, so she came up with another idea. Meekins created a design that coordinated with the hospital’s logo and colors and sent it to McCutchen to see what he thought.
McCutchen and Jeff Livingston, another partner of the hospital, loved it.
The design was submitted to the City of Cleveland and approved, turning what had started as a smaller project into the largest mural Meekins has completed.
“I think it’s bigger than the one that I did on the Texan Theater because it’s two stories,” she said.
McCutchen said the mural came about as hospital officials were looking for ways to improve the appearance of the property. He reached out to Emilio Lozano, executive director of the Cleveland Economic Development Corporation, who recommended Meekins after seeing other murals she had completed in the area. The city also had a beautification program that could assist with the project.
“We’ve got this just embarrassingly bad side of the hospital that faces all the traffic on 105,” McCutchen recalled telling Lozano.
Instead of simply repainting the exterior, the mural offered a chance to make a much bigger change.
“With that help and a façade grant from the city, it’s almost like painting the building, but we get to have this huge impact,” McCutchen said.
Once Meekins came up with the design, McCutchen and Livingston were content to let the artist be the artist.
“We didn’t want to hold up an artist,” he said. “We just let her roll with it.”
For Meekins, the mural accomplished something beyond adding color. It helped visually connect portions of the hospital that previously looked almost like separate buildings. She said a friend who is a realtor in the Cleveland area told her she had never realized all of the structures were part of the same hospital.
“The mural gives it more cohesiveness,” Meekins said. “Now people can say, ‘Oh, okay, that’s all in one. The whole thing is the hospital now.’”
Creating that transformation took most of the summer. Meekins began the project around June 27, just as Southeast Texas temperatures were settling into their summertime extremes. With afternoon temperatures climbing above 100 degrees, she had to change her work habits.
“I’m not really a morning person, but I ended up having to be during this project,” she said.
She would arrive around 7:30 or 8 a.m. to get as much accomplished as possible before the worst heat of the day. Sometimes she continued working until 1, 2 or even 3 p.m.
“A lot of water, a makeshift AC, and an umbrella. That’s how I got it done with the heat,” she said.
The age of the hospital building created another challenge. Before Meekins could begin painting, the exterior had to be thoroughly pressure washed to remove years of buildup and deteriorating paint. The surface then had to be primed.
Reaching all of it required more than a ladder. Meekins rented a boom lift that allowed her to maneuver over the hospital’s awning and reach sections of the two-story exterior that would have been difficult to access with a scissor lift or scaffolding. Even that presented problems. The first boom lift became stuck on uneven ground near the building, costing her about a week of work. Still, she kept going.
In the middle of the Cleveland hospital project, Meekins also had another Liberty County mural to complete. She recently finished artwork inside the pediatric treatment room at Patients ER, 708 US 90 in Dayton.
The colorful room incorporates local elements into a design intended to make a trip to the emergency room a little less intimidating for children.
Ashley Shibley, director of marketing and communications for Patients ER & Hospital, said the organization wanted the new Dayton facility to reflect the community it serves. The idea to bring in Meekins came after seeing her work around Dayton.
“When we were opening Patients ER-Dayton, we knew we wanted to incorporate the culture of the community into the facility in some unique way,” Shibley said. “After driving through town, we saw Cherry’s beautifully detailed murals, and knew that is exactly what we needed to tie it all together.”
Shibley said Meekins listened to what Patients ER hoped to accomplish and designed the pediatric room around that vision.
“She listened to our story and created the most special design for the room where we treat children,” Shibley said. “The room is warm, inviting and brings a local feel to help our young patients feel comfortable and at home.”
For Meekins, the Cleveland and Dayton projects are the latest in what has become a long relationship with Liberty County, despite the fact that she lives in Conroe.
She has now completed more than 50 murals, both indoors and outdoors, with much of that work in Liberty County.
In Cleveland alone, her work can be found at Operation Refuge Thrift Shop, 904 E. Houston St.; The Grand Bistro and Bar inside Grand Oaks Golf Club; Cameron Real Estate, 112 S. College St.; the Texan Theater, 102 E. Houston St.; the former Cleveland Advocate building, 106 W. Hanson St.; and the Cleveland Historical Museum, 203 E. Boothe St.
Her work has also become familiar in Liberty and Dayton. Meekins has painted murals at Fregia Insurance Services TWFG, 1399 N. Main St., Liberty; Tracy Williams State Farm, 1710 N. Main St., Liberty; Kountry Kitchen, 313 N. Main St., Dayton; and Dayton Sports Bar and Grill, 401 W. Clayton St., Dayton. Her latest Dayton project is inside the pediatric rooms at Patients ER, 708 US 90.
For Meekins, however, the Liberty County connection started with Jimmie Cullars and Bear Plumbing in Dayton.
Bear Plumbing, 106 Cook St., Dayton, was the first Liberty County business to hire her for a mural at a time when she was still trying to establish herself and build a portfolio.
“If it wasn’t for them bringing me out there and trusting me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I was brand new, just working on my portfolio, and they gave me a chance,” she said.
What happened after that makes Meekins laugh.
“Literally, ever since then, I haven’t been able to get out of Liberty County,” she said.
Not that she is complaining. Earlier this year, Meekins’ work took her much farther from home. She traveled to Italy in February to paint two murals for an Airbnb, adding an international project to her growing portfolio.
Yet she continues to find plenty of work waiting for her back in Liberty County. Meekins also recently joined Hope Christian Academy in the Tarkington/Cleveland area, where she will have another opportunity to share her creativity with children.
“Liberty County has been so good to me,” Meekins said. “I really appreciate all the support of the businesses that have been keeping my lights on, and just trusting me to do what I love to do, what I do the best.”