A Show-Stopper Mural and How It Evolved by Paula Mchugh
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THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 21, Number 28 Thursday, July 21, 2005 A Show-Stopper Mural and How it Evolved by Paula McHugh Have you driven past the corner of Woodland and Back in May, Connie Kassal invited The Beacher U.S. 20 anytime lately and noticed something that was- over to a studio at the Southern Shores Art Association n’t there before? If you’ve noticed traffic slowing to observe the super-sized work in progress where four down along Woodland where Naturally Wood Furniture 4x8 sheets of heavy plywood lay propped against the occupies that busy corner, then you need to pull into studio walls. Susan Weigel had a paintbrush in her the parking lot and have a good look at the larger-than- hand, busy applying the first of three coats of weath- life, three-dimensional mural that now graces the side erproofing varnish to one of the finished panels. of Naturally Wood’s business. Connie had been painting in some finishing strokes This is no temporary art exhibit. It’s meant to be on another of the panels, and her husband, George, around for a long, long time. Look closely at the was there to lend a hand and help steady the rolling bookshelf on the mural’s lower right, where local scaffold-cart that he custom-built for this and other artists Connie Kassal and Linda Weigel have left mural projects in the works. their “signatures.” Mural Continued on Page 2 Connie’s sketch of her mural idea for the Naturally Wood Furniture Center. Photos provided by George Kassal. THE Page 2 July 21, 2005 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.bbpnet.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also Subscription Rates delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. 1 year $28 6 months $16 3 months $10 1 month $5 Mural Continued from Page 1 This collaborative effort among our local artists and a local business took form last fall. Naturally Wood’s Mark Schoonaert was meandering through New Buffalo when an appealing mural caught Mark’s attention. “I was walking down Whittaker Street when I passed a long, brick building that had a window and flower box painted on it. I looked at it, stepped back, and looked again, thinking that’s a pretty neat idea,” Mark said. Mark returned to Michigan City with that mural on his mind. He told George—who happens to do computer work for Mark—about the trompe l'oeil window/flower box. George suggested that his wife, Connie was well-suited to create a one-of-a-kind All the main work of the mural was done in Connie’s studio at the mural for Mark’s store. So Connie came over, took a Southern Shores Art Association on Franklin. Here Linda Weigel bunch of pictures, looked at Naturally Wood’s fine line positions the panels before applying the base coat. of furniture, and went back to work at her drawing board. Connie’s small sketch shows the gridlines, and an additional sketch had been rendered to show all the points of perspective. George and Susan work on the grid lines. Mark’s spark of an idea took off under Connie’s care- Connie showed us several diagrams that she and ful planning, Susan’s helpful collaboration, and Linda had sketched. Connie drew the people, Linda, George’s skills with carpentry tools. the furniture. Connie said she spent between two to It’s difficult to imagine the behind-the-scenes plan- three hours working on lines of three different per- ning that was carried out even before the mural’s frame- spectives for each panel to match, and then all the work had been built. Most often, murals are painted sketches were made into a grid. directly onto a side of a building, but Connie found Connie said that the mural had to convey a sense that Naturally Wood’s brick side wall had too much of timelessness, so she paid particular attention to how of a relief between bricks and mortar. To solve that, the people in the mural would be dressed. She turned and other challenges, George built flat, exterior- to the works of Norman Rockwell for inspiration. grade plywood panels that could be painted inside Meanwhile, Linda found that a cozy cottage-style Connie’s studio in any weather conditions and then conveyed that same sense of timelessness in her fur- later attached to the business’ brick wall. niture pieces. THE July 21, 2005 Page 3 Open ‘til 6 p.m. Evenings www.littlehousefashions.comElegant Apparel for the [email protected] Conscious Woman Women’s Apparel Sidewalk Days! Summer Clearance! 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Meet Us For Lunch And A Style Show WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 - HANNAH’S, NEW BUFFALO “Linda and I have had fun bouncing around ideas,” Connie said. “She’s my creative coach.” 409409 Alexander StreetStreet, LaPorte, IN 326-8602 “You need feedback on a project of this size—it On Hwy 35 - 5 Blocks South of Lincolnway can’t be done solo,” Linda explained. TurnTurn Rightright on AlexanderAlexander Monday-FridayMonday - Friday10 am 9:30to 6 pmto 7 Saturday Saturday 9:30 9:30 am to to5 5 pm Mural Continued on Page 4 THE Page 4 July 21, 2005 on site at Naturally Wood Furniture—where they would be attached to the larger panel. Months of work and planning would culminate at the mural’s offi- cial “launch” on Tuesday, July 12, when the Chamber of Commerce officiated at the mural’s official ribbon cutting ceremony. The creative team of Connie, George and Linda “takes five” by resting on George’s rolling platform. Mural Continued from Page 3 The artists said that they met together often to plan George built this special rolling platform for Connie so that it would be each stage of the project. And because the finished work easy to reach the top of the 8-foot panels. of art is meant to last a long, long time, the choice of materials had to be researched in depth. The artists gained valuable information from Linda’s brother, a professional painter. “There is special paint formulated just for doing murals,” Linda said, adding that the latex art medi- um, unlike house paint, offers an expanded palette of colors meant to stay flake- and fade-free, unlike reg- It would be ular house paint. The extra coats of varnish the George’s job to cut out the artists applied to the finished panels are for extra pro- painted figures. tection from Northwest Indiana’s sometimes harsh weather conditions. Connie and Linda started working on the under- coating in late January, but then in February, the pro- ject abruptly stopped when, according to Connie, “everyone got sick.” Yet when The Beacher visited the indoor studio in early May, the complex project was nearing completion. The first coat of varnish was being applied to the panels. After the third coat was dry, it would be George’s job to carefully cut out each of the figures—a grandfatherly figure, a young boy “peek- ing”, a woman holding a taut leash, and a curious dog. Then, all of the pieces would finally be put together The grandfatherly figure towers over George. Mark Schoonaert drops by the Southern Shores studio to watch the mural’s progress. THE July 21, 2005 Page 5 Finished painting, ready to be cut and taken apart. George cut out each painted figure before it was transported to Naturally Wood Furniture. All of the pieces here are ready to be transported from the studio to the mural’s final destination, where all the pieces will be assembled. George, Chris & Nick are installing the framework to hold the panels. “They (Connie, Susan and George) were very metic- ulous with the installation,” Mark said, adding that some of the bricks were the wrong color, so Connie and Susan painted them on the spot to blend. Other bricks were the wrong size, and the artists patient- ly worked on the alterations. The grandfatherly man in the scene measures eight feet tall. And we’re not quite sure what the lit- tle boy is peeking at through the glass window— Connie said that she deliberately left that a “mystery” for viewers to decide. Viewers will see that all of the people (and the dog) are standing on a grassy area in front of the window. A warm glow surrounds the cozy living room scene.