By Addie Miller

Editor’s note: The Bangor Daily News has partnered with the Telling Room to showcase budding young journalists as they turn a critical eye toward the world in which we live. Read more about the project, and the rest of the students’ pieces, here.

MILO, Maine — Ryan Adams is an extraordinary artist. He is far from just an artist though. He paints murals, pictures, signs and even train cars.

All of these things with a family at home. His wife’s name is Rachel Gloria and is an “amazing artist,” Adams said. He also has two daughters, Norah and Zoey. He makes outstanding pieces of art. I love his brand new, “Untitled” train car.

Bissell Bros. Brewing’s Three Rivers, in northern Maine asked Ryan to redecorate a train, inside and out. So he got to it. He and one other guy named Will Sears started on one hot Monday. He said the humidity was the big challenge. On Monday they prepped everything. The inside was a new type of art. There were curves, lines, pinks, reds, yellows, greens — basically the train car was one big rainbow. The brothers asked him to represent the four seasons. Ryan really implied that! The train car had all different colored walls. Some blue for winter, pink and green for spring, tan and pink for summer, lastly red and green for fall. The train car had all sorts of dips and turns so it was easier not to add shadows like he had to on his flat pieces. He made the walls all different shapes, all different shapes that fit together like a puzzle.

Before he started painting he “felt the flow of the room,” Adams said. It only took him three days to finish this unique masterpiece. In all he worked over 20 hours. I wasn’t surprised in the least bit to hear that the boys used over 60 spray paint cans on their project. The boys not only painted the four seasons but on the outside of the car, a tremendous sign that said “Welcome to Milo, Maine.” He painted MILO into huge blue letters with outlines of trees inside the letters. He made the contrasts blend in perfectly to the train car. The train car was painted freehand too, no tape at all.

Adams said he likes the human hand feel rather than the perfect feel.

“I usually don’t use tape unless people are staring at it for hours at a time like in restaurants.” Adams said. The outside was not only a new, cool way to welcome people into the newly decorated piece of art but an amazing place to cool down in the hot summer with an amazing view while snacking. Snacking on breakfast, lunch, or dinner, Bissell Brothers hoped that after the pandemic they could make the train car into a place where people could sit down and snack.

In all, Adams transformed this plain 100-year-old useless train car into a majestic, new, hip, outstanding, modern piece of art. Even though the trip might have been long and the humidity annoying, Adams and Sears had a splendid time recreating this 100-year-old train car into this tremendous new masterpiece.