Originally published on Concentrate Media, written by Jaishree Drepaul-Bruder. September, 2019, Read complete article. 

The stories behind the scenes of three new Washtenaw County murals

There’s no shortage of eye-catching public art in Washtenaw County, but this summer saw the arrival of three major new mural projects. We chatted with the folks responsible for each of the new murals to get some insights on the inspiration behind them and how they came together.

Challenge everything, create anything

Destination Ann Arbor’s mission is to enhance Washtenaw County’s economy by promoting it as a destination for visitors.

While the tourism organization does that in many different ways, one of its most recent initiatives is the massive mural it commissioned on the 10-story wall of Courthouse Square at 100 S. Fourth Ave. in Ann Arbor.

Intended to celebrate Ann Arbor’s artistic and creative communities, the mural prominently features the phrase “Challenge everything, create anything.”

“We wanted to inspire people and remind them of all the good things about our area. We wanted people to see the mural and be inspired to be better and dream bigger,” says Chad Wiebesick, Destination Ann Arbor’s vice president of marketing and communications.

The project took about one year from concept to completion. Destination Ann Arbor staff wanted to make sure that they had the right artist, the right design, and the right building.

They partnered with Wickfield Properties. The company had previously commissioned a mural on one of its other buildings, which houses the Detroit Street Filling Station.

Mary Thiefels of TreeTown Murals in front of their mural at Courthouse Square. 

To bring their vision to fruition, Destination Ann Arbor staff enlisted the talents of Mary Thiefels, a local artist who serves on the board of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission and is the founder of the award-winning company TreeTown Murals. She worked with her husband, Danijel Matanic, who has painted murals internationally.

“They nailed it,” Wiebesick says. “Mary really wanted to create a one-of-a-kind mural for her hometown, so she took the inspiration she got from the phrase ‘challenge everything, create anything’ and used her own style, in her own way, and came up with the design.”

Thiefels and Matanic took three to four weeks to create the mural. Working on specialized power-scaffolding equipment, they started by placing a high-intensity projector on the building across the parking lot from Courthouse Square. They spent all evening tracing the outlines of the mural from a projected image, sometimes working as late as 3 a.m. Then they painted the entire image using exclusively paint brushes and rollers, rather than spray-painting.

Wiebesick says his first reaction to the finished product was awe.

“The more you look at it, the more you see. There are some famous Ann Arbor landmarks and icons,” he says. “From a distance it is so captivating, and even up close there is so much going on within it.”

He’s noticed that many people are taken with the figure at the bottom left-hand corner of the mural.

“The figure is outlined and not in color and could be representative of anyone and the fact that anyone and everyone is welcome in our city of creative thinkers and doers,” Wiebesick says.