According to one source, the world was given the wheel in an age when dinosaurs loomed overhead and active volcanoes burned in the distance.
Or so begins "The History of Mr. P's Tires," a series of murals covering many walls inside the Mr. P's tire store at 528 W. National Ave. And however questionable the historical detail might be, it's a lot of fun to look at the artistic detail in these murals, created by commercial artist Brian Keene.
Murals line the walls at four Mr. P's Tires locations. A Milwaukee-based business which specializes only in tires, Mr. P's can be found all around the city from North 76 Street to South 108 Street. The fifth shop, at 5204 W. Center St., is currently being remodeled.
Mural artist Keene says he expects to be brought in to do a mural in the remaining store, as well.
Keene put up the current murals in the four Mr. P's during the winter of 2010. Each mural took approximately a month to complete. "Murals usually end up taking more time than they should," says Keene, laughing.
Keene is a sign painter who will usually only do murals in the winter. Keene has been making signs for 23 years. He started his company, Billboard Express, after first working for Art Seimann Advertising and then for Derse Advertising Company.
Keene says that Derse sold its billboard division to Universal, which later merged with outdoor advertising giant Eller. With mergers and some companies going out of business, outdoor advertising has become increasingly compacted, making it even more interesting to find smaller companies like Billboard Express doing well.
"The last couple of years were pretty tough, but things are picking up, I'm getting busy again," Keene says. He recently finished a sign at Schlitz Park, off of Cherry and Water Streets, and also redid the wall of the Leinenkugel Brewery, 1515 N. 10th St., which faces I-43. Three years ago, Keene re-painted the big wall on the side of the Miller Brewing Complex, which took him about six weeks to complete.
Keene considers himself more of a craftsperson than an artist. He works by referral, usually getting his jobs through word of mouth, like the murals he has created for Mr. P's Tires.
The "P" in Mr. P's stands for the Pachefsky family. Larry Pachefsky is the second family owner, and has owned Mr. P's Tires for over 30 years. Keene says he isn't sure how Pachefsky heard of him, but commissioned three murals to have a racetrack theme. Each is made so that the viewer feels like being inside of a racetrack.
But the fourth mural, at the National Avenue store, is Keene's favorite. It differs from the other three, and depicts the "history" of Mr. P's, imagined as if Mr. P's Tires were around during the Stone Age and extended far into the future.
Keene painted parts of each mural on-site, and other parts – painted on the kind of vinyl used in billboard applications – were made in his shop.
"When I can, I do murals on vinyl, it's often too hectic to work inside a place," says Keene.
Keene only needed the measurements of the store walls to get started. Doing most of the painting on a proper-fitting piece of vinyl, he then glued and stapled the completed picture to the walls at Mr. P's.
One National Avenue mural shows the Roman-period "hostile takeover" of Mr. P's business, another mural suggests the early 20-century period of biplanes and Model T Fords. A biplane flying overhead pulls a banner boasting that, "Mr. P's has inflatable tires!"
The good-natured paintings extend into the future, where saucer-shaped spaceships fly over an eco-friendly field of wind-powered turbines and a highway of oblong-shaped vehicles, including several Mr. P's tire trucks.
The National Avenue store building was built in 1884, and the Pachefsky family has owned the building since the 1930s. Mr. P's Tires has been in the space for 12 years, according to Jim Phillips, manager of the National Avenue store.
Phillips has 32 years of tire experience and enjoys every aspect of working in the industry, especially meeting different people. "Everyone's gotta roll," says Phillips with a smile, because he also means that everyone has a "role" -- and he likes his. Phillips has worked at Mr. P's Tires for 27 years.
The mural in the Mr. P's at 2366 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. depicts a racing pit crew changing a tire.
"I like how they're outside working, just like us a lot of the time," says Raymond Marrero, who has worked for Mr. P's since 1997.
Keene also painted the tire logo on the south exterior wall of the Kinnickinnic Avenue tire shop.
"People talk about the murals all the time," says Marrero.
