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Acclaimed artist returns to adorn Italian restaurant with mural
A: Main, news
May 28, 2025
Acclaimed artist returns to adorn Italian restaurant with mural
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR

She’s back.

The internationally acclaimed mural artist who captivated Eufaulans’ imagination five years ago has been invited to paint an encore mural inside the Cucina Italiana Al Lago, at 134 N. Main St.

Tracy Lee Stum and her husband Sayak Mitra are hard at work creating the scene of an Italian village on the east wall of the Italian restaurant’s interior.

It may be finished as early as Friday, May 30.

Tracy and Sayak completed a mural on Selmon Road on Sept. 30, 2020, and since then have been involved in numerous projects around the country.

However, at the moment her most important project is getting a Master of Arts Management (MAM) degree at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh to aid her in running her growing art business.

“My husband and I moved to Pittsburgh last year,” she said.

Tracy is familiar with Pennsylvania. Stum earned a bachelor’s degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, after which she continued her studies in naturalism at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy.

She began street painting in 1998 and is considered by many to be one of the finest street painters today.

She said she was motivated to enroll in graduate school by her husband when he was in graduate school.

“He was having so much fun that when he was getting closer to finishing, I thought maybe I was pushing him to go to graduate school all these years,because it was really me wanting to go myself,” she said.

She chose CMU to enhance her business knowledge.

She has completed the first year of the twoyear program.

“I’m hoping when I get out of school, I’ll bring enough skill and knowledge and innovation to expand my business a little bit and maybe change up some of the models,” she said.

She has already made one change that has sped up the creative process.

At the outset of the mural project Tracy wore a Virtual Reality headset to visualize the drawing on the wall and used that visualization to outline the scene.

“I can see what’s in the computer, on my screen, and I can also see the background. So, I have an app that I put into the VR headset and so will not need to create drawings.

I can put any drawing in there and it will basically size it to any size I want it to,” she said. “And then I don’t have to spend time putting up a grid or putting up some trap cartoons or anything like that that takes a long time.

“I got all this done in maybe like two and a half hours.”

Otherwise, it might have taken days.

This is the first time she has tried the technical approach, and she is very pleased.

“It’s a game changer. Absolutely,’ she said.

She only uses it to sketch the outline. She paints the old-fashioned way.

Tracy has a youthful exuberance for her work.

“I’m with a lot of young people in school, in their 20s and 30s. It’s really interesting to see their perspective on the world,” she said.

She’s working on this project during the school break. When she finishes this one the couple will head for Joplin, Mo., for another one.

Eufaula teacher lauded by TFCU
A: Main, news
Eufaula teacher lauded by TFCU
June 4, 2025
Selina Jayne-Dornan, a speech and drama instructor at Eufaula High School, has been selected as one of three statewide winners in Tinker Federal Credit Union’s (TFCU) annual Teachers + TFCU sweepstake...
A: Main, news
Wanted: full-time Eufaula fire chief
June 4, 2025
Salary: basic wage $50,000; total package $74,147.25 Minimum requirements: - high school diploma or GED - at least seven years of paid or verifiable, active volunteer experience as a firefighter, incl...
A: Main, news
2 dead in apparent murder/suicide
June 4, 2025
What authorities say appears to be a murder suicide took place at about 4:42 p.m., Tuesday, May 27 in Checotah. Dead are Rachel Stewart, 31, of Eufaula, and Todd Patterson, 30, of Checotah, who were a...
A: Main, news
Celebrate Flag Day, June 14
June 4, 2025
Bring us your tattered and weathered flag. Observe as our local Boys Scouts and DAV members honorably retire it. Saturday, June 14 Starting at 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Free Cookout, Games and Raffle At Veteran...
City Council terminates contract with interim city manager
A: Main, news
City Council terminates contract with interim city manager
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
June 4, 2025
The latest person to occupy the city manager’s office is gone in record time. Larry Mitchell was hired as part-time interim city manager on May 7 at a salary of $60 an hour for a 30-hour week. He took...
Cave pleads guilty to burglary, gets 24 years
A: Main, news
Cave pleads guilty to burglary, gets 24 years
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
June 4, 2025
Trenton Cave, 21, of Eufaula, has pled guilty to 16 charges stemming from a short-lived robbery spree in December 2024. On May 28, District Judge Mike Hogan sentenced Cave to a total of 24 years in pr...
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A: Main, news
2 burned in boating accident
June 4, 2025
Two people from Oklahoma City were injured Sunday afternoon at the Eufaula Cove Marina when their boat exploded at a fueling dock near the Tumbleweed’s restaurant. Lauren Taylor, a passenger on the bo...
Treasurer treasures her kids, grandkids
A: Main, news
Treasurer treasures her kids, grandkids
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
June 4, 2025
McIntosh County Treasurer Betty Whisenhunt has begun the final month of her 11 years in office. She was sworn in on July 1, 2014, and her last day will be June 30. Whisenhunt replaced longtime Treasur...
Oklahoma Watch Files Transparency Lawsuit Against Education Department
news
Oklahoma Watch Files Transparency Lawsuit Against Education Department
By Oklahoma Watch 
June 4, 2025
Oklahoma Watch and reporter Jennifer Palmer sued State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the state Department of Education, asking a district court judge to order the release of pu...
The Land of the Free because of the brave
commentary
The Land of the Free because of the brave
June 4, 2025
With Memorial Day last week, I felt it appropriate to write something patriotic in honor of those who gave their last full measure of devotion to our nation. One idea I have been mulling over for a wh...
news
Hail and twisters dominate May
By GARY MCMANUS STATE CLIMATOLOGIST OKLAHOMA MESONET OKLAHOMA CLIMATOLOGICAL SURVEY 
June 4, 2025
After April’s stormy chaos, the first half of May brought a rare lull in Oklahoma’s spring severe weather season. Aside from an active kickoff on May 1 — featuring large hail, damaging winds, tornadoe...
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