East Dundee’s first public art is a mural tied to the Fox River

Equipped with extended rollers, rented scissor lift scaffolding, sunbonnets and buckets of paint, Maddie Deiters, with a little help from her mother, began work last week on East Dundee’s first publicly-commissioned mural.

“I’m more like the logistics coordinator,” mom Deanna Deiters said of her role in the project.

Among her tasks are taking photos, posting update on social media and even lending a hand putting down a coat of primer for her daughter’s artwork, which will cover the east side of the Great Spirit Hardwoods store at Jackson and North River streets in the village’s downtown.

Maddie Deiters, 16, said the East Dundee piece will be the 13th mural she’s done and the fourth she’s been commissioned to do this year. Self-taught and homeschooled, most of her works are in her hometown of Marion, in southern Illinois, but she also has murals in St. Louis and North Carolina.

“I like that people can see my art,” Maddie said.

Her mother added that the public art her daughter does changes the landscape of a town and brings a new energy to it.

That vibrancy is part of why the East Dundee Arts Council, building owner Pete Perisin, and the owners of Great Spirit Hardwoods and Spirit Craft Furniture, which occupy the building, were drawn to Maddie’s river-themed design to fruition.

Sabrina Opiela, senior account director for the two businesses, said she believes the mural will draw attention to the two related businesses, which are owned by her parents. If someone stops to look or take a photo, they might also come in to see what the shops offer, she said.

Perisin approached the arts council shortly after it formed about a year ago to suggest using the side of his building for their first undertaking. It was idea he’d been considering for at least six years, he said.

“The village president and the council were very open to that,” Perisin said.

A request for mural ideas and cost quotes last fall resulted in more than a dozen submissions. Deiters’ stood out, Perisin said, because she presented herself so well in a phone interview and clearly knew how to do such work.

He and arts council members also liked Deiters’ “out of the box” rendering of the river scene, which links it to the nearby Fox River, he said.

That piece includes native plant and animal species above and below the river’s surface. It also features some “Easter eggs,” said village trustee and arts council member Andy Sauder, like stones in the water that, upon closer inspection, are actually parts of unused gravestones containing errors that have been discarded.

The arts council is already been talking to at least one other downtown business about doing a second mural, Sauder said. They might also consider working with local schools on a mural but wanted someone with experience for the first piece, he said.

East Dundee is paying $13,680 for Maddie’s mural, which includes supplies, lodging and the artist’s fee. To protect the investment, an anti-graffiti coating will be applied and security cameras are being installed.

Perisin said he also moved an air conditioning unit, took out landscaping and blocked some windows in advance of Deiters starting on the wall, which is about 65 feet long and 20 feet high.

Weather permitting, the mural should be finished sometime this week, Deanna Deiters said. A good portion of work will happen at night as Maddie uses a projector to put an image of her art on the wall for her to paint.

People can track the work’s progress on East Dundee’s and on Deiters’ Tree Line Art social media pages.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.