By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Having the full summer to complete a mural inside the Great Bend City Auditorium, artist Anna Popp decided three weeks inside the auditorium during the summer heat was long enough to complete one of her largest murals. Patrons walking into the auditorium on Stone Street can see the completed mural on the east wall above the seating.
"Obviously there is the sports aspect, but the Great Bend Recreation Commission has a bunch of classes that are not sports related," said Popp. "So I collaged a bunch of figures into it, some playing sports, one was painting, one was cooking and one doing yoga. I went with a more abstract, blocky background."
Popp, a 2021 graduate from Great Bend High School, is entering her senior year at the University of Kansas this fall.
"I have a program on my iPad," said Popp. "I can take a picture of a wall and then I'll draw everything on there. I'll work from that small version. Where an inch by an inch would go to a foot by a foot."
Growing up, Popp worked for the Great Bend Rec at the city pool and volunteered as a coach.
Popp added she is working on paintings at Park Elementary School and an interactive wall at Eisenhower Elementary School. She also has plans to paint a mural for Nex-Tech on Main Street.