PHOTO COURTESY OF DAN HATALA/FACEBOOK

TRAER – Artist Dan Hatala’s second mural commissioned by members of the Traer Mural Project Committee as part of the community’s 150th-anniversary celebration this year is almost complete. It is located on the building directly west of the public library, facing Hatala’s Jack and the Beanstalk mural which was completed last September.

“The crew at Hatala Illustration (myself) has made good progress this week on a new mural in Traer, celebrating the American farmer,” Hatala wrote on Facebook on Aug. 9. “It will include a poem by Blackhawk county farmer James Hearst, a gifted poet that captured in word the Iowa countryside and the men who work it.”

Hatala’s painted farmer stands roughly 18 feet tall, he said. While not quite finished yet, the mural will eventually stretch between the two buildings. Be sure to wind up downtown soon and check it out!