Whim Parlour has an eclectic style for her in-home salon. She asked us to paint something on her garage door where her customers would appreciate her brand. This large image can be seen behind the Rahr-West Museum, adding to the many murals around Manitowoc.

Peter Rathanman, CEO of Allis Tool, was gearing up for his company’s 70th Anniversary, which included a re-branding of his company to Allis Manufacturing. Peter bought the business several years ago, and has been driving excellence every since; and to be a part of that package, he wanted a mural on the side of his building celebrating the rich manufacturing tradition West Allis has.

This was in 2020, before the pandemic. When things were uncertain during the first stages of the spreading coronavirus we decided to put this project on hold. In 2022 started again. We met with Peter to discuss a design and he knew some key images he wanted. Allis Chalmers, the powerhouse of manufacturing in the early part of last century, needed to be included Peter had vast knowledge of the history of manufacturing in West Allis. “West Allis was the machine shop for the world,” he told us. Peter wrote a nice article about the rest of the images here https://www.allismfg.com/news_and_events/mural-project-west-allis/

Peter has named this mural “Timeless Manufacturing”, an appropriate title, considering the pride Peter, this community, and all of Wisconsin has for their history and contributions. We were happy to be part of this tradition.

 

Jan and Chad, owners of The Epicenter in Sturgeon Bay, approached us to paint the large wall of their 4th Avenue building. We collaborated and designed in the dead of winter and came up with a concept that was seen in the final wall image. On June 23rd, the lower portion of the mural was painted with the help of the community. All ages and abilities joined to paint their little piece of the wall that beautifies their neighborhood.

Door County Daily News has an interview with Erin here.

We were invited to be part of the 3rd Annual Mural and Busker’s Fest by Downtown Green Bay’s Broadway district. The past 3 years have created 30 murals and this past year there were over one hundred applicants. We worked with Stage 1, the venue where the mural can be viewed, and the Broadway committee, who owns the wall of the future Public Market, to come up with a concept, which the finished version can be seen below. 

It was a great Father’s Day weekend, with live music on the stage along side us.

A group of students from The Algoma Venture Academy, a public charter school, approached Yonder to have us teach a mural class, with the final project being to paint a wall in our city. Throughout the winter, we prepared; mostly with the 8 students collaborating together to create a design. We started painting the wall in the alley just behind Yonder’s studio. Later that month, we invited the community to come paint the rest of the mural with a paint by number. 150 of our neighbors came out to help and join in the fun and kick off the summer.

 

SeaGrant is 50 years old in 2022. To mark this occasion, they decided to have a mural painted by Wisconsin Artists. Sturgeon Bay was selected as the location for the mural. We worked with Jody Henseler, as a member of our team to provide scientific perspective about Lake Michigan and help infuse her passion for the water into our work.

A video by SeaGrant’s Bonnie Willison can be seen here.

 

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood as Manitowoc Sputnik Fest attendees came by to help paint the mural on First Presbyterian Church. Pastor Matt Sauer wanted a Mister Rogers-themed mural on his wall, since Mister Rogers was a Presbyterian minister and the “closest thing we have to a saint” he said. Pastor Matt has a giving and inclusive organization, so the mural was to display this idea to the traffic as they are heading down the hill into downtown Manitowoc.

The Sturgeon Bay Historical Society with their hard work in preserving the Teweles and Brandeis Grain Elevator, wanted a mural paying homage to the Sturgeon Bay’s agricultural roots. Bayside Bargains , which is across the street from the grain elevator, allowed us to paint on their wall. The historical society knew they wanted to represent the agriculture heritage of the water to the land so we went about designing a concept that included their famous steel bridge, a wooden clipper ship, that would haul the seeds to the granaries, and in the center, the seed itself as a center point, and then a transition around the wall to a pastoral land with rolling hills which Door County scenery did then, and still does abound in. This was also  a paint-by-number mural in which the community turned up to finish painting the lower half.

Here is an interview by Door County Daily News about the process.

We were invited by On Broadway to participate in their Second Annual Mural and Busker’s Festival. They wanted a food-themed mural and with knowing about their renowned farmers market, we wanted to include foods and flowers that would be found during harvest season in Northeastern Wisconsin. We included some butterflies to indicate the importance of these pollinators in the food growing process.

We invited David Carpenter a usual partner, and Gabby Krumpos, an emerging artist and designer to help us complete this large artwork in the required 4 days. David’s impeccable skill would help render the vegetables to realistic perfection, and Gabby is an up-and-coming mural artist, and they will help with two other murals later this year.

Erin and Don came out a couple nights early to project the outlines, and we met some of the local business owners already on this hot July night. The next day, we painted in some of the higher background areas, to get them out of the way. It was Wednesday, so we got to visit the farmers market for a little while.

Thursday was the official start and our team was assembled. Every day in the morning and before we left, we would drive or walk to see other nine artists working on their mural. Saturday and Sunday, were the days that the Festival occurred so the buskers and musicians were out in full force and we got to meet some wonderful people. Old friends stopped by to see the spectacle; and it was a reunion of sorts.

We completed the painting just on time, on Sunday about 4 p.m. This event will end up being one of our best memories of mural painting because of the energy and camaraderie surrounding us.

We were contacted by the City of Fond du Lac Downtown Committee.

This mural was commissioned by the Community Improvement of Algoma in one of their “pocket parks”.

This idea was conceived in the mind of City of Manitowoc Water Treatment Facility employee Scott Krause in 2015, and in 2020 this painting came to life, after the City of Manitowoc came to us to paint this image of a rainbow trout on their giant gas sphere painted to look like a giant bobber. 

Let it exist to delight visitors after they arrive from Michigan on the USS Badger ferry, and add a splash of color to an heterotopic, industrial area.

Thanks to Hallman-Lindsey for paints and Hamann Construction for the donation of the lift.

 

We enjoyed doing this mural

Woodland Dunes is a nature preserve in Two Rivers Wisconsin. They asked us to paint a mural on the old barn on the property that when visitors drove in, it would be one of the first things they would see. It included some flora and fauna on their land, such as a saw-whet owl, turtle and fox.