MURAL MANIA: UW-Stout Gets Second Student-Crafted Mural
students across two design courses were able to plan and produce new 40-foot mural
Sawyer Hoff, photos by Timothy Mather |
With the roaring success of last year’s student-created mural, UW-Stout’s Applied Arts Building has added another bold and bright mural to its premises. Thanks to the help of UW-Stout professors Erik Evensen and Cynthia Bland, as well as Wade Lambrigtsen from Vintage Sign Shop, a group of art students were able to design and paint the new, 450-square-foot mural.
Painted alongside the mural from last year, this year’s design showcases bold orange and white “Art & Design” lettering placed across a stylistic landscape of different artists' work. The design was created by four students in Evensen’s Digital Illustration course – Kylie Ganther, Bear McQuitty, Joe Mischke, and Zoe Slewitzke – and was molded into a solid mural design with support from Bland and Lambrigtsen.
“I think the success of last year's mural helped those students in terms of getting excited about it and kind of knowing what they could get away with, what kinds of themes were appropriate,” Evensen explained. “And I think (the design process) moved a little more quickly than last year.”
After about four weeks of designing, the mural was ready to burst to life. It was painted by a group of 14 students split up into two groups from Bland and Lambrigtsen’s Graffiti and Street Art course. The painting process started on Monday, May 22, and wrapped up the following Friday.
“I have students come out to the shop and work on making patterns and getting things ready to actually paint the mural, then Cynthia teaches art history with street art and graffiti,” Lambrigtsen said.
The project stemmed from the popularity of last year’s mural, and the ball keeps on rolling. Through this experience, former and current students that have worked on these murals have been enlisted to create other murals in the Menomonie community and beyond.
"They're giving people an experience for years to come."
WADE LAMBRIGTSEN
OWNER OF VINTAGE SIGN SHOP
“After we painted the first mural, I got a couple of commissions in Menomonie to paint a mural at the candy store, like an interactive giant milkshake. And then from that, we got another gig at a pizza place where we painted a mural in the alleyway,” Lambrigtsen said. “And in both of those jobs, I had students help me. Students from the first mural class came to help me paint and they got paid, which is what I want. That's my hope for this whole class, so students realize you can make a living doing this kind of thing.”
Evensen, Bland, and Lambrigtsen hope to continue to offer this project for future students, Lambrigtsen stating, “There’s still plenty of concrete to cover.”
“I think it resonates with them like that they're building something that's greater than just an illustrated piece or even a physically painted mural,” Evensen said. “They're giving people an experience for years to come.”
Read about last year’s mural at volumeone.org/articles.