TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
Merrill’s homeless and transitional housing shelter, the MAC Home, located on Merrill’s west side at 407 W. Main St. in Merrill, is fairly inconspicuous. But the first week in August, the MAC Home became much easier to find. Local artist and college student, Bailey Iwen, spent hours painting the side of the two-story building with the MAC Home’s updated logo in its new color scheme. Now the MAC Home is bound to get noticed.
On the wall, the words “MAC Home” stand about 2 feet tall and the mural/logo itself is about 11 feet x 13 feet, Iwen said.
The MAC Home Board opted to use new colors for the logo to convey “inclusivity amongst diverse populations,” she said. “The MAC Home wants people to know their doors are open for those in need, so we all decided on the slogan ‘Offering Hope and Compassion’ to encapsulate their message.”
They also added the MAC Home phone number to the wall.
Iwen, who agreed to do the painting after being asked by MAC Home Board Member Dee Olsen, is entering her last semester of college this fall, will continue in spring 2023 with student teaching placement, and will graduate in May from UW-Stout. She plans to pursue a career as an art teacher after graduation, hopefully locally. “My goal is to be hired close to home in the community I grew up with as an elementary art teacher,” she said.
The MAC Home paid for the paint and materials and will also extend a gratuity to Iwen for her talent and labor, Olsen said.
Carl Theorin and John Theorin of Wausau Sales Corporation donated the use of the scissor lift, Jim Turenne of Turenne Construction helped coordinate getting the lift, Reindl Printing provided paper to transfer the design, and the painting supplies came from Ace Hardware.
Using the lift enabled Iwen to get 25 feet up into the air to paint, but the process began long before the lift and paint brushes came into play.
“First we took a picture of the empty wall and used a digital painting to make a mock-up of what it could look like,” Iwen said. “Using my mom as a scale for reference, we calculated the dimensions of the wall to determine how big it would be and where on the wall it needed to be placed.”
Then Iwen spent about 22 hours transferring the design and creating a huge, life-size stencil of the design. She then taped the huge stencil to the wall to create the outline, and the rest was a matter of filling in the outline with paint and doing the detail work. In total, it took Iwen about 45 hours to complete the project, and that’s not including the time her parents, Doug and Pam Iwen, spent helping her. They especially helped painting and filling in the big areas of the design, Iwen said.
“The mural turned out beautifully,” said Theresa Anthoney, Executive Director at the MAC Home.
Anthoney said the idea for the mural came as the result of two things. First, “Whenever someone calls, whether it is a potential client or someone dropping off donations, they ask if we have a sign on our building, and I always say we are at 407 W. Main and we have the two stained glass windows next to the door, but only a small sign on our door saying MAC Home; I told everyone to look for the stained glass windows.” Nevertheless, the building didn’t have high visibility.
Then, “in the spring we were approached by someone in the community to paint a mural on our building because they saw it as a beautiful blank canvas,” she said. “After discussing it at the Board meeting, it was decided that we would paint our logo on the building so everyone would know where we were.”
“Bailey was chosen because she has done other murals in the community,” Anthoney said.
“I was grateful for the opportunity to be asked for such a big project and love to spread art for a good cause,” Iwen said.
The Board opted to tweak their original logo “to make the heart red and the hands orange,” Anthoney said. “This change made the steps into the heart and the chimney stand out more so that the heart looks like a home, as intended. It was a group effort by all of our Board members making the changes.”
“Our Board President, Mike Ravn, spoke with Darin Pagel [City of Merrill Building Inspector] when we were beginning this project and explained our ideas,” she said when asked about sign ordinances and permits. “Mike was told it is a mural and we wouldn’t need a permit.”
“I’m excited to say you can see our sign from a block away [now],” Anthoney said. “But you can [also] still look for the stained glass windows.”
