InTouch with Southern Kentucky August 2020 | Page 10

SUBMITTED PHOTO
Tyler Whitaker joined with fellow artist
Bryan Landon II to create “The Spirit of
Southern Kentucky,” a mural featuring
many of the area’s natural wonders on
the steps in front of the Somerset Energy
Center downtown.
To me storytelling, more specifically
through film, can spark generational
dialogues that resonate throughout
the centuries and shape the
conscience of entire cultures.”
These days, Whitaker keeps busy
producing video content, with a love
of filmmaking and screenwriting.
He works with the City of Somerset
and other organizations to capture
their visions, and also makes his
own short films — he’s currently
finishing up a script for a “cryptic
short,” as he described it.
“As a teenager, my friends from
church and school and I would
make usually humorous short films
from wacky ideas we hatched up,
but venturing into the serious and
professional realms was something
I always knew I would want to do
someday,” he said. “But that’s not
to say I wouldn’t ever do anything
just for fun again. You’ve got to
be able to have fun, as sometimes
the duties of film are stressful to
coordinate and orchestrate.”
Whitaker’s name has been in
the local news lately however
for something else — painting.
Whitaker joined with fellow artist
Bryan Landon II to create “The
Spirit of Southern Kentucky,” a
mural featuring many of the area’s
natural wonders on the steps in
front of the Somerset Energy Center
downtown.
The on-ground painting recently
drew some criticism at a recent
Somerset City Council meeting,
most notably in its depiction of
the American flag. City officials
had received complaints that an
image of the flag shouldn’t be
on the ground where people can
walk across it or it can be easily
disrespected. Although those rules
for flag etiquette typically apply
only to actual flags, not depictions
of them, the city went ahead and
had the flag altered to become
something else in the mural instead.
Whitaker was accepting of the
changes —”I understand the
position where they’re coming from
(regarding the flag). I’d just counter
that in no way, shape, or form was
any disrespect intended by the flag
(being included). It was meant to
symbolize the community between
us, Kentucky, and the nation as a
whole,” he told the Commonwealth
Journal. “If that’s what they wish to
do with that (changing the image),
then they can. Anytime your art
draws (negative) attention, it can
get to you, but they have every right
to do that.”
To be caught up in a controversy
over a painting is somewhat
surprising, since painting is
something Whitaker rarely does, he
noted.
“My friend Bryan is the one who
paints primarily,” said Whitaker.
“(Somerset Mayor Alan Keck) had
mentioned a mural, so I drew up
the design on a sketch pad and
presented it to him, and when it was
commissioned, I called Bryan. If I
do anything physically artistic, it’s
sketching ideas and building movie
props and miniatures.
“I have been inspired by film
from an early age. I went from stop
motion and poor-quality phone
videos to getting my first handheld
camera and writing and shooting
short films with my friends,” he
continued. “Once I graduated
high school, I started cultivating
a catalog of professional film
equipment. I decided that a career
in film was something I wanted to
seriously pursue when I attended
Somerset Community College, and
after graduating with a degree in
Criminal Justice, I left Somerset
in the fall of 2015 and enrolled
in the Nashville Film Institute in
Tennessee.”
10 • In Touch with Southern Kentucky AUGUST 2020