Broken Arrow man's mural masterpiece

Little surprises often lurk just under the surface. Sometimes, we are fortunate enough to find them. <br/><br/>Look what News on 6 reporter Rick Wells found in the stock room of the Broken Arrow Wal-Mart.<br/><br/>â€

Wednesday, August 17th 2005, 9:52 am

By: News On 6

Little surprises often lurk just under the surface. Sometimes, we are fortunate enough to find them.

Look what News on 6 reporter Rick Wells found in the stock room of the Broken Arrow Wal-Mart.

â€ I enjoy painting it's my first love." Harlan Walker is finishing up work on his fourth large mural at the Broken Arrow Wal-Mart at Aspen and Kenosha. "There are several different shades of green in this, that's what gives it realism."

Busy customers coming in and out of the store, probably will never see this mural or any of his others. He is working back behind the layaway desk in the employee only stock room area. "The associates look at it and relax and wish they were there."

His first painting was a motivational piece, a shark hungry for sales. The store manager liked it so much he ordered up a beach scene.

Harlan's been painting all his life and he says he never had any formal training, it just came naturally somehow. He fits his mural painting in on weekends and on breaks from his real Wal-Mart job coordinating things in the floral department.

Only a little of his work is on display, Pistol Pete, the Sooner Schooner and the Broken Arrow Tiger in the spirit shop.

He plans to keep up the work as long as they'll give him wall space. "Every blank wall is a potential. Another painting, another painting and I love doing it."

Harlan says his next mural will feature a portrait of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton looking down from heaven on the Broken Arrow store.