Sean C. Morgan
Larry Gordon Kangas, 65, of Beaverton never had any children, but considered the more than 1,000 murals and other pieces of public art he left across the Northwest as his offspring.
Kangas left his mark across Sweet Home too. He painted most of the murals in Sweet Home since 1994, and he has restored several by other painters. Kangas died from cancer on Nov. 25.
While dealing with the illness over the past year, he and his wife, Sandy, finished five projects, Sandy said. “Larry won a grant to paint a 65-foot-long mural of the Northwest Portland community at the busy intersection of NW 23rd and Vaughn. He painted with passion and delight, using only one arm as the cancer crept into his shoulder.”
After 30 years as a one-man show, she said, her husband received “generous support” from Richard Rodrick as a “ladder jockey,” and Allison McClay served as an assistant artist. Larry Kangas transformed the long, barren wall into a vibrant street scene with cafes, skateboarders, scooters and joy. He painted himself and Sandy having coffee at the first table at the corner.
“Larry was great at painting vibrant life and joy into our lives, and I am so grateful for the love and happiness he painted into mine,” Sandy said. “A sudden turn in his cancer left him accepting the end of his life with grace and love, still making new fans of his murals and his spirit.
“Please carry his bright and colorful spirit in your hearts and celebrate each day as he did. The love he painted in our lives is his real masterpiece, and through us, he continues to paint the world with joy.”
“He did most of the murals, and he took a personal interest in the ones we have here,” said Gail Gregory, who has been involved in the murals committee since its inception.
“Of the 11 murals in the program now, seven were done by Larry,” said Bill Nyara of the Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort. “Most of the murals you see when you drive down Long Street and Main Street are his.”
Among them were the flag on the side of Hoy’s Hardware and the mural at the Vet’s Club, both donated.
Kangas also painted murals at Lakeside Market; on the side of Sweet Home Lanes; next to the Fire Hall; the patrol car near Main and 12th; the logging scene at 12th and Main; and Old Scout on the side of Bentley’s auto repair near 18th and Main. The mural at Sweet Home Lanes was destroyed by fire.
He has touched up and preserved other murals, painted by Tim Myers of Sweet Home and Ann Woodruff Murray of Junction City. Among their handiwork were Myers’ mural in the 1300 block of Long, a mural at the high school auditorium and the wagon road mural by A&W, and two murals by Murray at Speedee Mart and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The murals at the high school and Speedee Mart have been removed or covered.
The murals project started in 1994 as part of the same effort that created the Sweet Home Economic Development Group and the Oregon Jamboree.
A half dozen members of the community were interested in expanding art and culture in Sweet Home, believing that murals may attract visitors to the community, Gregory said. A $10,000 Rural Development Initiative grant, plus a donation by Manny Victor Sr., funded the initial murals in 1994.
“We were hoping to do another one, so I was really shocked,” she said of Kangas’ death. Larry and the committee had been discussing a mural with a rodeo or western theme.
“Since I heard he passed away, I think of him every time I look at one of (his murals),” Nyara said. “He was a great guy to work with. He was just interested in doing what we wanted, but as every artist does, he always wanted to have his own quirk and twist in every mural.”
“Over all these years, we got to know him pretty well,” she said. “He was very enthusiastic. He worked fast, and he worked well with our group. He was a give-and-take kind of person.”
The committee would make suggestions, she said. He’d incorporate those ideas and make his own suggestions.
Larry brought a technique to town that would help preserve his murals in the long term, Gregory said. He would paint them on a separate surface in his studio and transport them to Sweet Home for installation on a wall.
LARRY KANGAS and his wife Sandy, in rear, work on a mural in Sweet Home.
“He was painting even though he couldn’t use his arm,” Gregory said. “It kind of gives you an idea what a tough, persistent kind of guy he is. We’re going to miss him coming to town.”
Kangas worked mostly in Oregon, but he worked often in Washington and in California – in small towns and larger cities.
He grew up in Hubbardston, Mass. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, he joined the Air Force and served on active duty for three or four years before joining the reserves. He retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.
Kangas had been trained to be a pilot, but with an oversupply of pilots in the Air Force at the time, he served as a navigator.
He came to the Northwest when he was transferred to McChord Air Force Base in the Tacoma area. He started doing window art in Seattle, generally for commercial purposes.
He explored different forms of painting. He painted on canvas. He painted portraits, but his murals were to become his life’s business.
He painted eight murals at McChord, Sandy said. When the building was demolished, they were moved and preserved.
“He eventually moved to Portland and then started a mural business,” his wife said. Kangas developed the business while using the reserves as a part-time job.
For about 10 years, he didn’t paint exterior murals, she said. A billboard company sued Portland for giving preferential treatment to murals, so Kangas painted elsewhere, including the lobby of an assisted living facility, where he took the art down hallways, giving residents a sense of humor about the place and making it more like home.
Much of his work will never be seen by the public, Nyara said, because he painted many interior murals on private property.
Kangas’ public work remains highly visible every day to the residents of Sweet Home – a connection that will remain for many more years.
“It’s wonderful,” Sandy said. “He never had any children, but he always thought his murals were sort of like children he’d leave behind in the world.”