Giant Highway Art
Launch the media gallery 1 playerFor years, a very large depiction of a little girl holding a shredded teddy bear, pouting next to a dalmatian, has stood next to Highway 30 south of Dunlap. Over time, this huge piece of roadside art became a recognizable landmark and brought a "welcome home" feeling to many.
In March of 2025, due to its deteriorating state, the piece had to be taken down. It was the goal of local community members to get the piece recreated and reinstalled somewhere in the Dunlap area. The fundraising and campaign to bring the art back to Dunlap was led by Mike "Space" Schwery!
Here is a photo from the Dunlap Reporter in 1999:
Per an article in the Dunlap Reporter, 1997, by Butch Walker, it states:
“John [Cerney] (artist) said he used to be in the lettuce business with Richard Hein of Dunlap, and they are longtime friends. The field where the installation sits belongs to Richard’s father, Jerry Hein.” [This field is south of Dunlap on Hwy 30.]
“John decided he wanted to spread out and display his works more nationally and he got in touch with his old friend, Richard, who got John in contact with his father. ‘Aw, go ahead,’ John remembers Jerry Hein saying.”
When we reached out to John more recently, on March 18, 2025, here is what he said:
“People in Dunlap may have forgotten, but there was actually another mural on that same spot a few years prior to the 'Crying Little Girl' being placed there. In 1997, I persuaded my friend Richard Hein to get his dad to let me place a mural on his corn field. I wanted to display my cutout paintings in other places besides California. The attached photo shows Gerry and Lorene Hein standing in front of that mural....a domestic scene of a husband hanging a painting while his wife directs him...plus the family dog. I told Gerry that I would only place the mural there for a year or two, and then haul it back to California. I actually sold it to a frame shop in my hometown of Salinas, CA. Gerry was sad about the mural leaving, as it was becoming a landmark in the area. I thought, what the heck...I would leave the dog, but paint something else in the same spot where the husband was. I came up with the crying little girl, who is upset because the family dog has ripped her teddy bear to shreds. Whether it made sense or not, it just became a part of the landscape.”
“So, it was actually in 1999 when I came out to haul back the original mural and install the crying little girl. The Dalmatian was really too small in relation to the little girl, so if I were to paint another one, I would correct that, and probably have him/her hanging his head in shame!”
Here is what John had to say about the possibility of bringing this mural back to life:
“It would be great if it happens. The little girl who modeled for the painting is Lizzie, and she is thrilled at the prospect of the mural being resurrected. She's the daughter of good friends of mine, and she actually manages my website. She never came out to see the mural, but will do so if it comes back to life.”
Here is a photo of Lizzie the model, next to the 16’ tall art installation!
Lizzie is now 32 years old (as of 2025)! As you can see, John used a different photo for the teddy bear.
John has now placed his work in 24 states – he believes 9 in Iowa alone.
https://www.johncerneymurals.com/
On May 28th and 30th, 2025, the Art Installation was reconstructed by Artist, John Cerney, north of Dunlap on Hwy 30, near the Youth Sports Complex!
THANK YOU to ALL who made this project possible!!