Lookout Point Jackie Stark

A massive mural featuring Mother Nature graces the side of the BeWell facility located on the corner of Third and Ohio streets in Marquette.

BUILDING BEAUTY

Marquette’s new mural features Mother Nature

Story and photos by Jackie Stark

When Kate Lewandowski and Christopher Ray first purchased the massive building on the corner of Third and Ohio Streets in Marquette, they had big plans.

And those plans included equally big art.

“When we bought the building, we just saw this big, open, flat empty pallet and just thought how great it would be to have something beautiful on the wall,” Lewandowski said.

So, she contacted the City of Marquette Arts and Culture Center to inquire about potential artists for a mural, and director Tiina Harris put Kate in touch with Power of Words Project founder and artist Mia Tavonatti.

Tavonatti had already created several Power of Words murals in communities across the Upper Peninsula. Originally from Iron Mountain, she was happy to return to the U.P. on occasion to share her artwork with the general public. But Tavonatti said she never had plans to create a mural in the city of Marquette.

“I figured they got their stuff going on already and they didn’t really need me … but they wanted something here and we got it done,” Tavonatti said during the official introduction of her newest Power of Words project, the largest mural on display in the city of Marquette.

The project was a couple of years in the making, with production on the mural beginning in 2019. However, after an accident at the site of the mural, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was delayed significantly. But, it came to fruition this summer and was officially unveiled to the community in August of this year.

Tavonatti had help with creating the mural from a team of local artists, including Michele Tuccini, Sabrina Langdon, Taryn Okesson, Emmalene Oysti and Patty Gagnon.

Tuccini, who was also part of the mural project along the bike path in Marquette, said she learned a lot being part of this type of project.

“It’s totally amazing” she said of the mural as she worked the merch table at the unveiling, handing out scavenger hunt lists to kids which prompted them to find some of the many images included in the mural, and selling Power of Words Project t-shirts. “I’ve known Kate and Christopher for a long time, and when (Kate) was talking to me about this project, I had never heard of the Power of Words.”

At that time, Tavonatti was working on a mural in Gladstone, so Tuccini went there to meet the artist and check out her work.

“That mural is wonderful,” she said.

To date, there is one Power of Words Project mural in Gladstone, three in Manistique, and five in Iron Mountain.

Marquette’s mural, like all the Power of Words murals that came before it, began with a community-wide voting process. First, words were nominated for contention. Then, a list was presented that the community voted on.

“Natural” received an overwhelming majority of votes, and so was chosen to be the word for this 10th Power of Words Project.

Once Tavonatti had her design, the mural took 20 days to complete. Using a grid to help the team work together, several local painters helped bring Tavonatti’s design to life. And for this project, so did Tavonatti’s sister, Tara.

Though their lives have taken them far from the Upper Peninsula, (Mia is a professor at Laguna College of Art and Design in Laguna Beach, California) the sisters have roots in the UP. Tara is a full-time artist, just like their father was, who attended NMU. Their mother was born in Marquette. The sisters grew up in Iron Mountain.

During the mural’s official introduction, City of Marquette arts and senior services coordinator Tristan Luoma said the mural was a welcome part of the local public art scene in Marquette.

“This is the largest mural to date in the Marquette area, a stunning addition to our downtown landscape that speaks to Marquette’s unrelenting creative spirit, our unique sense of community and our admiration for our natural environment,” he said.

He went on to say the word the community chose was fitting for the area.

“Though everyone who voted for it will have different reasons for doing so, different passions, different priorities when it comes to appreciation and preservation, and different ideas for how we can help sustain what we treasure so dearly, we all undoubtedly share a very personal and emotional tie to nature,” he said.

That personal connection became evident when, after the official word “natural” was chosen, Tavonatti went back to the well, asking the community what, exactly, “natural” meant to them.

“I got a lot of feedback. Very diverse,” she said. “Some of it was controversial about construction and building. Some of it was more esoteric, ‘I love nature and I want it to stay that way.’”

That feedback helped in her design of the mural, which features the face of a woman (Mother Nature, herself) gazing out over a landscape that spans the seasons, a birds nest perched on her head and sunlight shining through the trees in the background onto water.

“I thought (the feedback) was really well-rounded. For me, I just wanted to create something that was really like nature. Because everything is connected,” Tavonatti said. “So in this mural, everything is really connected. There’s a lot of patterns weaving together. I think that’s what people enjoy about nature, how you become part of it. It’s like a web that pulls you in.”

The mural was funded in part by a $35,000 matching façade grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which the Marquette Downtown Development Authority applied to receive.

“Our downtown has been the beneficiary of numerous public art projects in the recent past and we look forward to more in the future,” said DDA events coordinator Tara LaaseMcKinney. “Downtown Marquette benefits because public art like this is accessible to all and inspires engagement and a sense of belonging.”

The mural certainly makes an impact, just off of Third Street at the corner of Ohio Street, appearing from seemingly nowhere as you crest the hill heading north.

In order to ensure the mural contained natural elements appropriate to the area, Tavonatti contacted several local photographers, “trying to find resource materials of the flora and fauna.”

“There’s a lot of local photographers represented in here,” she said on the day of the official introduction, gesturing to the sweeping mural behind her.

With this 10th mural in the Upper Peninsula done as part of the Power of Words Project, Tavonatti is still receiving calls from multiple U.P. municipalities, asking her to create one in their town. For Tavonatti, large works of public art uplift the community in multiple ways.

“You do one here and then the neighbor on each side says, ‘Well, now we need to paint our door and change our sign,’ and it spreads,” she said.

For more information on the Power of Words project, visit powerofwordsproject.org.

About the author: Jackie Stark has lived in the UP since she was 11. An avid reader, she also loves gardening and has been talking about learning to play the guitar for 14 years.

One of three Power of Words Project murals in Manistique features the word “Discover” and illustrates scenes found in the community.

The new mural in Marquette’s downtown district on Third Street was officially unveiled at a ceremony on Aug. 25 that included organizers, artists and others who made the massive artwork possible.