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Tony Craig spent many years as an artist for Warner Brothers and Disney, but it is fond memories of his childhood in Stanly County that have inspired his latest creation.
Craig left for California in 1989 to chase his dreams of working for the Walt Disney Company. After two years of studying at the California Institute of the Arts, he was hired into the animation industry at Warner Brothers, working on the original “Tiny Toon Adventures.” He later worked at Disney and Hanna-Barbera. He returned to North Carolina in 2008 to devote his time to his own artwork and freelance animation.
In his latest creation, Craig has released a limited run 30×15-inch print of the Min-O-Pon, which closed in 2018 after more than 60 years in business.
The Min-O-Pon served breakfast and lunch, but it was also known through the years as a primary spot to purchase bait and tackle while en route to the lake.
Jason Palmer’s parents, Randy and Hazel, operated the Min-O-Pon during the mid-1990s. Palmer remembers scooping up the minnows.
He purchased the original painting from Craig.
“I love it. It’s just like I remember it when Mama and Daddy had it,” Palmer said.
For Craig, it was a mixture of growing up in Albemarle and return trips back home that inspired this project.
“I had moved out to California to work at Disney, but Mom and Dad, being from Albemarle, would take us down to Atlantic Beach every year and our route was Highway 24. I would just fly back for that trip every summer because we had two weeks guaranteed at a time share in the middle of the summer,” Craig said. “And I would stop at the Min-O-Pon each time and get a Cheerwine and a pack of crackers for the drive down to the coast. So that was kind of a ritual to me and I was real upset when they tore it down. I had wanted it paint it for a long time and I had a lot of reference photos from the mid-90s all the way up to after it was closed in 2018.”
Craig said it took him many years to determine how he wanted the painting to look. He used several photographs for inspiration, and then added a boat, a truck and a Merita Bread truck.
“It took me a long time to get a composition for that painting that I liked and to combine multiple elements from several photographs to create a composition that looked more active than some of the pictures that I had,” he said.
He spent about a month and a half, or 130 hours total, on the Min-O-Pon painting.
“That one had more detail than a usual one,” he said. “I would just spend one whole day on the gas pumps and putting in the leaves.
“I don’t think people realize how much time you put into those things.”
Although he has painted the Pontiac sign in downtown Albemarle, which remains on the side of Five Points Public House, Craig said he wants to paint other parts of Stanly County’s history.
He gives credit to another local artist as well.
“I respect and admire all the paintings that Roger Thomas had done of his memories of Stanly County so I’d like to start painting some of my memories, too,” Craig said.
One painting he would like to get to is of cruising the Sky City parking lot in the 1980s. Sky City was part of a chain of discount stores.
“I used to be the projectionist and usher at the movie theatre. So I would be out there changing the marquee and you’d have to deal with all the people cruising and walk through the maze to go do that,” he said. “I remember when I went out to change the sign on the side of the building and ‘Ghostbusters’ finally was coming to Albemarle and as soon as I put up the letters for the wirds ‘Ghostbusters,’ everybody cruising by cheered. I felt kind of like a hero because they knew ‘Ghostbusters’ was coming the next day.”
He said he has not been able to find many photographs of Sky City, adding that there is not much found on a Google search.
“A lot of times, why would you take a photograph of it, really? You think it’s always going to be there, and then it’s gone,” he said. “So I’m going to have to use a lot of imagination, a lot of creative license.”
He also would like to paint Jay’s Downtowner, Jay’s Seafood and the recently demolished Uwharrie Sportsman.
“The reason that I wanted to paint this stuff is I just hate to see all this cool old stuff go away. And to me, I don’t even see the reason that they have to go away because I think it probably could have been saved somehow, but I know that is a decision that the people who own the property have to make, whether they want to deal with it or not,” he said.
“But the problem is, when something like that goes away, the individually-owned place that has a home-cooked meal instead of processed fast food, it’s not being replaced with another restaurant elsewhere that’s like it. You just don’t have it anymore. And I really have a sense of loss when those things go away.”
Whether a business closes because of death of the founders or that their successors do not wish to carry on the hard work, Craig urges people to support local homegrown businesses while they are around.
“If there are any of those mom and pop places left, they could really use your support to keep them open,” he said.
Anyone wishing to learn more about the Min-O-Pon print can contact Craig at www.facebook.com/tonycraigag. He plans to be in the Stanly County area Wednesday and Thursday for anyone looking to have a hand-delivered painting.