Painting the Town

Cha’ Tullis wanted to give something back to the community that had helped nurture his artistic vision since childhood. More than a decade ago, he painted murals as a gift to his hometown of Hominy, Okla. (pop. 2,584).

Tullis hoped his colorful murals with American Indian and wildlife themes would boost the morale of the northeastern Oklahoma town after its oil-based economy was hit hard during the 1990s.

What Tullis gave back was a series of murals (around 30 in all) that he painted on the brick facades of Hominy’s downtown buildings. Five of the murals have been destroyed, either by fire or demolished for new construction projects. Still, Tullis remains philosophical about the changing urban and artistic landscape.

“I knew from the beginning that some of the murals would be covered or razed, but some of the new buildings have created space for me,” says Tullis, 45, a part-Blackfoot, part-Cherokee artist who was raised in the heart of Oklahoma’s Osage Nation.

Undaunted by the possibility that some of his public art might one day vanish, Tullis single-handedly set about to earn Hominy its name as “The City of Murals.”

His work has attracted thousands of visitors to the town’s Main Street. The murals include depictions of animals endowed with sacred powers—like the eagle (with its connection to creation) or the wolf (with its links to family as well as individuality). He also painted American Indians engaged in active pursuits like horseback-riding or more meditative pursuits (like the seated grandfather figure surrounded by a circle-of-life design).

“He really has made an impact on local tourism,” says Tex Bayouth, a 35-year resident of Hominy. Life-long resident Eva Nave seconds that notion. “Cha’ has done more for Hominy than anybody else I know,” says Nave, who has known Tullis since he was a boy.

The murals are just one component of Tullis’ artistry. His Main Street gallery—Cha’ Tullis Designs—features an array of the artist’s work from paintings to beadwork to his large steel sculpture, Good Medicine Pony, its frozen gallop occupying a pastureless expanse of the wood-floored showroom. Tullis’ wife Teena manages the gallery and makes the beaded jewelry her husband designs. She rattles off her partner’s accomplishments in a twangy sing-song that approaches a litany of chanting. “He does walking sticks, prayer sticks, rain sticks, paintings, ironwork, sculpture . . .”

Sculpture, Tullis says, is his newest venue. The impetus for tackling the medium came to him in a dream—the way many of his ideas come.

That dream culminated in 1996 with the construction of 16 mounted warriors made of steel. Up to 20 feet tall, the silhouetted riders tower over Hominy’s downtown from a steep lookout at the edge of the city limits just north of Main Street. Last fall, the city obtained a grant to light the hilltop sculptures at night.

His waist-length silver hair swaying like a dancing mane, Tullis canters to his gallery’s front door and pokes his head out. “There,” he points with one multiple ring-bedecked hand to the black-dotted horizon. “You can see them.”

Like the circling war party, dreams are never far from Tullis’ sight. His most fervent dream for Hominy these days is to create a sculpture park where “people . . . can come and feel a sense of sanctuary, of being one with the earth.” Tullis envisions the park as “a healing place,” where grandparents can bring grandchildren to create art together—or to enjoy the mixture of art and nature surrounding them.

Tullis says Hominy is ideal for creating such a sanctuary. “I’ve never seen greener greens or bluer blues than here.”

Margaret Dornaus is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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