Mary Thiefels, became involved in mural-painting in the summer of 1998, when she and a group of friends lobbied the Ann Arbor Railroad to create murals on its downtown railroad underpasses.  It wasn’t until years later, after much reflection on that summer’s installation of 8 murals, created by 6 local artists, that Mary was able to see the vital impact that those murals made on the Ann Arbor community and realized the vast impact public murals were making all over the globe. 

The underpass murals became the starting point for something even more impactful. Over the years many emerging youth artists, some of them court involved, have been given the opportunity to participate in shaping a public mural art project for their community. Workshops through Neutral Zone, the Ann Arbor Art Center, and Community High School took students through the entire process from surveying local residence to collect ideas for themes to funding, design, promotion, planning and implementation. These experiences have has a lasting effect on these young people and have given them an effective and inspiring way to participate in their community.

It was the culmination of these teaching experiences and community projects that pointed Mary in the direction of public mural art as a career. She founded TreeTown Murals (TTM) in the summer of 2007.

Over the years, TreeTown Murals has partnered on many larger community mural initiatives.  These projects often involve community participation. TTM works hard to involve individuals in the mural making process by incorporating insight, direction, and creating events that invite individuals, school students, families, business enterprises, and community stakeholders to “make their mark” in a unique way. Participants have stated they feel pride and joy in helping to shape a community landmark that will stay in the public trust for years.

As TreeTown Murals grows and evolves so do the murals.  Each project is becoming more sophisticated and the avenues for educating and involving the community are becoming more diverse. Beyond the community public art, TTM works with businesses to build branding, storefront signage, in addition to one of a kind window art with sister company the BrushMonkeys.

Today, TreeTown Murals is comprised of two core artists, Mary Thiefels and husband Danijel Matanic, together they are reshaping the mission and vision of the company to include projects that reach deeper into diverse demographics of people, expand their work onto larger and more impactful surfaces, and have hopes to travel globally with their ideas, skills and collaborative efforts.