New murals brighten Wheatfield walls

WHEATFIELD — Last week, artists came to Wheatfield and painted four murals to brighten the plain walls and give the town some new character as part of the RenArtWalk that was held in Rensselaer.

Suzi Howard, a member of the Wheatfield Chamber of Commerce said local artist Doris Myers came to the chamber to talk about public art in the town and suggested murals. She said the Chamber formed a small 3-person committee to see what they could do. She said she had known Myers since she was a small child and was eager to help her with the project.

Howard said the committee was introduced to the Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JCEDO) and they talked about grant funding for murals. Then they discussed the RenArtWalk, which is for the whole county. Wheatfield was added to the art walk through the Jasper County Tourism for this summer.

Then, she said, they started talking to business owners about having a mural painted on their walls. Howard said she was added to the JCEDO meal committee to facilitate bringing artists to Wheatfield. She said she helped them get to town and assisted them while there.

The artists, Cameron Moberg, Emily Ding and Zack Curtis, worked in the heat and humidity to create their works of art. Moberg, who has been a frequent muralist in Rensselaer and other places in Indiana, painted the murals on Heather’s Diner and Centennial Park, where he painted a sandhill crane.

Ding and Curtis shared the large west wall of the Wheatfield Municipal Building. Curtis was scheduled to paint a different wall, but the business owner was unable to get the wall prepped in time, so he shared the wall with Ding, who painted a curling snake greeting a mouse, which it may be anticipating having for a meal.

Curtis painted a pair of sneakers with bright flowers growing out of them and a sunflower under one of the shoes.

Ding is from Houston, Texas, and though used to heat, the humidity was daunting but didn’t stop her. She said she paints animals, and chose the interaction between the snake and the mouse for this mural.

Curtis is from Pontiac, Michigan, and is also used to humidity, but tried to get as much done while the sun was still on the eastside of the building. He said most of his jobs have been in urban settings, and he was happy to come to a small town. “It’s nice to come here, slow down and relax,” he said.

When painting, he first does the outline, then “scribbles” over the design, using it as a graph for the final design. He takes a picture of the outline with scribbles, and superimposes the actual art over it as a grid while crating the much larger painting.

Howard said each artist has their own style and the murals are left to the artist’s discretion, although there are rules such as nothing religious, political, obscene, etc.

Ding was chosen because she is known for doing large scale murals, and she was slated to paint the whole west wall of the town hall. Howard explained the texture of the building walls is also important to what gets painted and by whom. Moberg is good at working with more textured walls, using bright colors to enhance his images.

Howard said she hard of some children hanging out with the artists and asking questions. One boy even helped Moberg exchange cans of paint with the other two artists. The child was very interested in what the artists were doing.

Howard said, “We certainly hope there will be more. There is a potential for more next year through the RenArtWalk.”

She said Moberg, who procures the artists for the art walk, saw more potential buildings while visiting Wheatfield the first time.

“We need something like this to bring people to Wheatfield,” she said.

So far, she said, the feedback has been “mostly very positive” and through social media, she has seen “overwhelming support” for the murals.

The chamber hopes the murals will bring more people to town and more businesses. She said the murals will enhance the annual Sandhill Crane Festival, where crowds come to se the car show and visit the vendors and displays of the festival, which is held on the third Saturday of September. This year’s festival will be Sept. 16.

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