A new mural now covers the south-facing wall of the Louise Campbell Center for the Arts in West Point, Mississippi, depicting sunflowers, magnolias, a female cardinal, a dancer, Dorothy's red shoes, a windmill and the city's gazebo. Painted over two weeks in early October, the piece is called “Legacy in Bloom,” and it celebrates both Louise Campbell and the broader creative spirit of West Point.
The mural was created by Dominic Laporte and Anaïs Labrèque, the duo behind Ottawa-based DRIFT Mural Co., who traveled 1,298 miles from Ottawa to West Point for the job, according to the Commercial Dispatch. They found the project through an online public call for muralists, the paper reports. The Dispatch describes the finished work as a 30-by-90-foot mural, while a call for proposals posted to app.entrythingy.com had specified the project would cover roughly 1,800 square feet across four stucco panels on the building's south wall; the Louise Campbell Arts Center is at 235 Commerce Street. That proposal document says the mural should celebrate “the life, legacy, and lasting influence of Louise Campbell, whose love for the arts helped shape West Point's creative spirit.”
Who Was Louise Campbell
Louise Campbell died at her home on May 22, 2025, at age 87, according to her obituary from the Robinson Funeral Home. She led the Prairie Arts Festival for 25 years and served on boards including Mary Holmes College and the West Point-Clay County Arts Council, per the Commercial Dispatch's reporting. Campbell partnered with fellow residents Lee Stafford, Norman Armstrong and David Malone to establish the festival back in 1979, according to the Mississippi Free Press, and that event has remained a mainstay in West Point for more than four decades.
The McClure's Building in downtown West Point bears her name as the Louise Campbell Center for the Arts, the funeral home's obituary notes. Laporte was asked to draw inspiration from the colors and patterns of Campbell's favorite scarf while designing the mural, the Dispatch reports. He told the paper that he and Labrèque felt a personal connection to the call because both he and the Campbell family had lost artist mothers, and he said the project felt like a joy, with the Campbell family welcoming throughout.
A Decade of Mural Work Behind the Brush
Laporte is a painter, illustrator and muralist who began professional mural work in 2014 and has since completed more than 120 large-scale projects worldwide, per the Dispatch's reporting. His artist profile on Mural Routes describes him as an Ottawa-based muralist and illustrator whose work blends traditional painting with mixed-media techniques. He and Labrèque formed DRIFT in 2023 and spend about two-thirds of the year in Ottawa, the Dispatch notes, with Laporte working 9 to 10 hours a day during the two-week West Point project.
The pair's past work includes a mural on the side of Samurai Hardwood Flooring in Nelson, British Columbia, painted in August 2024, which aimed to show, per Penticton Western News, “a positive representation of a wolf pack.” DRIFT's largest mural to date, “Beyond the Current” in Monroe, Michigan, stretches 302 feet by 26 feet, the duo told Apartment613. The West Point project used roughly 150 cans of spray paint and 12 gallons of paint, according to the Dispatch.
Mentoring the Next Generation of Muralists
Beyond the finished artwork, the project built in paid mentorship for three local artists — Brad O'Neil James Jr., William Donovan Weathers and Bella Brownlee — who received hands-on instruction in public-art skills, the Dispatch reports. That mentorship covered spray-paint technique, contracts, budgeting, how to navigate public-art calls and sourcing paint supplies, per the same report. It echoes an effort DRIFT has underway back home, where the duo told Apartment613 they are working with the Ottawa Arts Network on an award, grant and mentorship program for emerging artists, after noting that Ottawa's public-art scene is often slowed by the lack of a dedicated mural committee and outdated bylaws.
West Point already has a homegrown mural tradition of its own: resident Deborah Mansfield, owner of Deborah Mansfield Decorative Painting, has created 13 of the city's murals since starting with one on the side of Cash and Carry Cleaners around 2012, according to the Mississippi Free Press. Critz Campbell, who teaches at Mississippi State University, is connected to the family honored by the new piece, the Dispatch notes. Labrèque said West Point residents were kind, talkative and complimentary throughout the project, while Laporte described residents showing excitement as the mural's sunflower began to take shape on the wall.
With the West Point job finished, the DRIFT team plans to travel next to Michigan and then Decatur, Georgia, before heading back to Canada, according to the Dispatch's reporting.
