Muralists Draw Relationship Between City, People and Their Art
Photo by Doug Coombe
It’s nearly impossible to travel through downtown Ann Arbor and not be blown away by the city’s public art; whether it’s a jaw-dropping mural soaring 10 stories high, festive window-paintings, or beautiful street art, there is something new to enjoy around every corner. For Mary Thiefels, Co-Partner of TreeTown Murals along with her husband Danijel Matanic, they believe that one of the most powerful aspects of public art is the element of surprise, wonder, and awe that people feel when they stumble upon such creations.
Thiefels and Matanic work together and collaborate with various community partners to tell a story through their art. Most recently, TreeTown Murals created a temporary street mural in downtown Ann Arbor for the WonderFool Productions FoolMoon celebration. The mural was designed for this year’s “Stroll and Roll” event, which took place on April 9. Inspired by over 300 Washtenaw County student art projects, the sun & moon themed street mural is one of many examples of the power that public art can have on a community. Thiefels has seen that power first hand throughout her career.
“The relationship between a city, it’s people, and it’s art creates a synergy: reasons for people to stay, for people to come back, for people to look around and appreciate something truly unique,” Thiefels mentioned.
Thiefels fell in love with painting murals in the late 90’s when she and a few other local artists painted 8 different murals on the downtown train underpasses. These murals, some of the first in Thiefels hometown of Ann Arbor, ignited a spark in her that later inspired the founding of TreeTown Murals, and more recently the partnership with Matanic, a renowned international artist in his own right.
“At that point I had been working mostly out of a sketchbook or painting on canvases, and then to be given an opportunity to put one of my ideas up on a really large wall, there was a kind of transformation that happened to this young artist in that moment,” Thiefels recalled looking back at the murals she painted under the underpasses. “People were constantly honking their horns and outwardly showing support for the murals that summer. The local newspaper covered the progress, giving the project a lot of visibility. I didn’t realize this would cause such a positive ripple effect, and when somebody offered to pay a friend of mine and myself to do another visible street mural, I realized there could be a monetary exchange in this. It all sort of just fell in my lap.”
Now, over 20 years later, Thiefels and Matanic have made public mural painting their career and find themselves seeking new, more challenging and dynamic commissions all over the region.
Thiefels and Matanic have grown TreeTown Murals, as well as Brush Monkeys, a business under the umbrella of TreeTown Murals responsible for the paintings on the windows of hundreds of Michigan businesses. They have now expanded their realm of community partners and audiences, working and consulting with various municipalities, corporations, schools, non-profits, and much more. Their company prides itself on telling the story of the communities they serve, and know how important their art is at uplifting spirits during these strenuous times.
“Recently, more and more people and communities are turning to the arts to bring people back together, to find meaningful ways to express and heal from this very intense, trying, and traumatic time,” said Thiefels. “I’m seeing that the work we are doing is very important; using visual art to tell our collective story, where we’ve come from, and where we want to go as a community.”
Photo by Doug Coombe
With their world-class artwork being so visible throughout the city, Thiefels and Matanic have had a large impact on establishing the identity of Downtown Ann Arbor. In addition to featuring community participation in many of their projects, both Thiefels and Matanic teach and mentor artists, and have helped pave the way for emerging artists to have their voices heard.
“That’s the other piece of being artists for Danijel and I, we’re mentors and teachers too,” Thiefels said. “I think painting murals will run a theme throughout our careers but we’re both educators as well and we love to share this experience, and work with emerging artists of all ages.”
Currently, Thiefels and Matanic are creating a mural set to be visible to the public in late June or early July for the city of Dearborn, celebrating Arab-American Culture, by showcasing visual elements of the different Arab cultures that make up Dearborn, MI. Additionally, they were recently hired by the Henry Ford Health System to create a mural for the Kingswood Behavioral Health Center in Royal Oak, MI.
No matter where they go, and what they create, they hope their mural art generates conversation, an exchange of ideas, and tells a story of the people or place it represents.
“Human ingenuity is pretty profound, and I want to see more cities and companies centering artists and the visual arts as a means to communicate so we can all experience the transformation art provides. We want to be at the forefront of that.”
This piece was written by Clayton Skinner, Communications Intern at Fresh Coast Perspective.
