Main Street alley: Mural provides outlet for recovering alcoholic

Forty years of hard drinking is only a memory now for 58-year-old Larry Caudill, the man responsible for painting a mural on an east alley wall in Colfax.

Larry Caudill works on his mural in alley behind main street.

A self-described recovering alcoholic, Caudill was painting a few dabs onto his ever-evolving bright blue and black painting in the alley behind the N.100 block of Main Street.

Tuesday morning, his worn baseball hat was flecked with paint.

“Used to be in my younger days I’d say I was going to paint the town when I was going drinking,” Caudill said. “Now when I say I’m going to paint the town, people better watch out, because I might mean it literally.”

Caudill found his freedom from alcohol four and a half years ago and has since been living a life he considers to be most fortunate. He began his painting project one morning three months ago when he was bored. He said the calm of painting helps him feel better.

“I never thought a little town of Colfax would be the place where I get my sanity back,” he said.

His second-floor apartment balcony sits directly over the mural, with scatter shot lighting bouncing off some CDs he has hung on the balcony.

Caudill has lived and worked odd jobs in Colfax for the past five years and relies on state assistance for his bread and butter. In an interview with the Gazette Monday morning he was waxing poetic about his new-found freedom.

“I realize now that every human being has walls inside them that prevent them from doing anything,” he said, referring to his past addiction. “The only thing stopping anyone from doing anything is the person in the mirror.”

Every few days, Caudill will take a paintbrush and add more color to his work of art. He began with the interior of the garage behind Palouse Hills Accounting and Tax Service, and moved on to the alleyway wall afterward.

“He just said he was bored and was going to buy some paint. I gave him some money and he just took off from there- used his imagination,” said Jerry Moss, owner of Palouse Hills Accounting and Tax Service.

The building itself is owned by Bill Griffin.

Caudill’s journey into alcoholism began when he started drinking at age 15. For the next 40 years, most of his life revolved around that next drink.

“My first thought waking up in the morning was, ‘Do I have enough beer to make it through the day?’” he said.

Four and a half years ago, he hit rock bottom one night and then had a stunning moment of clarity that changed his life.

He was drinking at home in Colfax when, suddenly, he felt an immense amount of despair overtake him. It was incomprehensible, he said, and he felt in that moment he didn’t care if he lived or died.

Then his trusty cat, Sweetie, came and sat at his feet. He realized the cat needed him and trusted him.

Then the miracle happened, Caudill said. He woke up the next morning and didn’t have the urge to start drinking. He threw away all his alcohol, thinking his need would simply come back and he would have to dig his 15 beers back out of the dumpster, but didn’t.

“Two days later, my wall of denial was gone,” he said.

He joined a 12-step recovery program and began a long and frightening journey to sobriety.

“It was frightening as hell,” he said.

While he can’t say he never thirsted again for alcohol, Caudill said his life is full now of feelings of discovery, contentment, and newness.

“What’s happened to me in my sobriety is I guess I’m finally getting to a point in my life where I’m at peace,” he said.

His next dream, he said, is to plant an amazing garden where people can come and feel at peace and at home.