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By Kate Krieger. MCP Senior Correspondent.
LUDINGTON – A building that has been rather bland the past few years is getting a splash of color. The building which once housed Ludington Rec bowling alley is the site of the second of two Love Ludington graffiti murals.
Earlier in the summer, a mural was painted on the former Napa building’s east exterior wall. Now, across the open space, the west exterior wall of the old bowling alley, which has been a dreary black, is getting a mural.
The project is being sponsored by the Community Foundation for Mason County and the Pennies From Heaven Foundation. In between the two buildings is a community garden.
“The foundations wanted to something pretty,” local artist and business owner, Andrew Thomas said. “They thought that doing some murals would be fun and something the community could also get involved with.”
Thomas and other area artists were instrumental in assisting with the first mural. They outlined the word “Ludington,” along with other pictures that were specific to the community and then an open invited was issued to anyone who wanted to come out during a recent First Friday Art Walk to help paint the mural.
“We had about 75 to 100 people helping paint at the first mural,” Thomas said. “The first mural is great. We are going to go back and clean it up a little and put in the final touches soon.”
Currently, the group of artists is working on the second mural, which is dedicated to the S.S. Badger. Thomas stated that because the wall they are working on is so much taller than the previous wall, there won’t be nearly as much available painting projects for the community just due to safety reasons.
“This wall is so big, the majority of it is unreachable without a ladder,” he said. “It’s not going to be the same thing as the last one, but we want people to come down because there will be projects they can do. They will just be things that aren’t dangerous.”
The second mural will be one of the stops at this Friday’s Art Walk. Thomas said they will be downtown working on the mural the entire time from 5-8 p.m.
“This second mural, we have more of a focus on creating a real art piece,” Thomas said. “It will still have the Ludington theme with some whimsical additions.”
Thomas stated that the second mural will probably not be completed by the end of this week’s Art Walk, but they will continue to work on it to wrap it up soon.
“We really encourage people to come down Friday,” he said. “They just need to come talk to us to see what’s available for them to help out with.”
For a full list of artists featured in this week’s Art Walk, visit the Downtown Ludington Facebook page at www.facebook.com/downtownludington.
“This second mural is going to be insane when it’s done,” Thomas said. “It really is great that John and Anita Wilson and Pennies From Heaven sponsored this whole thing to happen. It’s a great addition to Ludington and cool that the community gets to be a part of it.”
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