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This is how the south wall outside Bingo's
Saddle Shop looks now, after Westside painter Douglas Rouse finished the mural
in late September.
Mural on outside wall attracts Eighth Street eye to venerable saddle and tack shop
In a scene from mid-September, Douglas Rouse
paints on the south wall of of Bingo's Saddle Shop while around the corner, facing
east toward the parking lot off Eighth Street, is the store entrance. The "D&S" in
the store name is an old term, literally meaning "doubled and stitched" - a pledge
of high-quality work.
Westside Pioneer photo
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The past six of those years the store has been in the hands of Diane Hanchey and her sister, Kim Parker, both of them horsewomen from California. “We trail ride,” Hanchey said. “We're just mountain girls.”
They recently relocated the business from a middle unit to the south corner within the six-unit commercial center on the west side of South Eighth Street's 400 block. The new address is 422 S. Eighth. They'd been waiting for that spot to open, seeing advantages with its larger space, the additional parking along its south side and also the wall there.
The wall? Hanchey and Parker envisioned that concrete block expanse as a kind of advertising board, especially viewable by equestrian traffic along Eighth Street from the nearby Norris-Penrose Event Center.
Following that idea, they talked to Westside muralist Douglas Rouse, and he set up his painting apparatus along the south wall in September.
Douglas Rouse touches up one of the horses
during his creation of the mural in mid-September.
Westside Pioneer photo
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The outcome of his efforts can now be seen - a roughly 16-by-20-foot depiction of two horseback riders, one western-style, one English, who appear to be bursting full-tilt from the wall. They feature a fun Rouse technique - also evident in his murals inside the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center - to trick the eye in terms of perspective.
Rouse said he developed the mural the way he does most of his large works, by starting with a sketch, then projecting an enlargement of it to get a sense of the spacing.
“It's a cool mural,” Hanchey enthused. The scene also reflects the Bingo's inventory, which is split pretty evenly between western and English. Even when she and her sister trail-ride, “we borrow from both sides of the aisle,” Hanchey pointed out.
Bingo's started as a harness shop in 1929, evolving into a tack and saddle business that includes mending and repair services. Bingo (Dominic Santana) wasn't the founder, but bought the business in 1941, changed the name and ran it for the next 40 years, according to the About page on the Bingo's website.
Prior to Kim and Diane, Bingo's was owned for 25 years by Phil Guy, who moved it to the Eighth Street center. “Bingo's is the oldest tack store in the Pikes Peak region,” the website states.
The business is open daily. The phone is 634-6070, and the website is bingossaddleshop.com.
Westside Pionee article
(Posted 10/14/16;
Business:
Changes)
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