Tamara Gerkin's canvas is the previously bare wall on the Main Street side of The Karl Reef, a bar and grill at Main Street and Grand Boulevard.

Using photos from the West Pasco Historical Society's online collection and mementos from the Roaring '20s, Gerkin is creating an imaginary street illustrating actual buildings from that period.

When finished, it will be alive with flappers wearing the latest fashions and a bookstore sporting volumes about famous people who lived in the area.

She began her work Sept. 27.

The city is paying Gerkin $7,500 to celebrate a colorful period in New Port Richey's early 20th century history. Her contract with the city stipulates she is responsible for 10 years of maintenance on the mural. Additionally, she must pay for all materials.

So far, she said she has spent $2,600 on supplies, resurfacing and sealant.

Interim City Manager Philip Deaton and two city mural committee members, Jeannine Humphrey and Dave Eichenberger, smoothed the way for her project, Gerkin said. With the mural about half done, she said, the reaction has been positive.

``Every single day people honk horns and yell,'' Gerkin said. ``I've had hundreds of compliments.'' She has lined up at least four future mural commissions from locals who have seen her work. ``No matter where I work, I always end up getting more jobs,'' she said. The New Port Richey mural is Gerkin's 82nd in a career that has roots in elementary school in Denver, where she grew up.

``In the third grade I became an artist,'' she said. A teacher secretly entered one of her drawings in a state contest, and Gerkin walked away with first place. Although art beckoned, she at first majored in psychology at Arizona State University.

``I was raised where you didn't want to be an artist because they had bad reputations,'' Gerkin said. Bad reputations or not, six months away from getting a psychology degree, Gerkin followed her heart and scrapped psychology for a degree in art.

After additional study at the National Academy of Art and Design in New York, she began a stint as a portrait artist and opened her own gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In 1996, a friend commissioned her to paint an inside mural, ``my first $20,000 job,'' she said with a smile. ``I fell in love with it,'' Gerkin said of that first wall painting. ``I had always wanted to paint really big. I decided this is what I'm doing.'' Besides Arizona, she also has lived in Georgia and Hawaii. Hawaii's vibrant tropical hues influenced her work. ``I push the colors,'' she explained, pointing to a brown dog she painted. Streaks of green and purple shoot through the brown. ``If it's not colorful enough, I increase the colors.''

Although Gerkin moved to Port Richey in 2002 to live with her widowed mother, Katheryn Sampson, she travels widely. ``I come here every three to four months to get my mail,'' she said. Working up to 15 hours a day, Gerkin takes only four days off between assignments to catch up on her sleep. She politely declines to reveal her ``insignificant'' age. She seems content with the nomadic life she has chosen. ``My life is my work,'' the divorcee said. ``Art is life. And life is art.''

While working on the downtown mural, Gerkin wears a headset and listens to music, helping block out the street noise and steady her concentration.

Her work can be seen at www.artisticmurals.com. Visitors to the site can access a log with pictures illustrating the progress of the downtown mural.