June 23, 2014 at 4:19 p.m.
Nicolet students paint military-themed mural on AT&T tower wall
Nicolet students paint military-themed mural on AT&T tower wall
By Kayla Thomason-
Last fall the graphic design students at Nicolet were offered the chance to submit a design for the mural. The only condition was that it had to have a military theme tied to the Northwoods.
Nicolet teachers Barbara Buckel, art and graphic design instructor, and Nate Wilson, fine arts instructor, chose the best two out of the three submitted designs to be presented to the city of Rhinelander.
The city chose the design submitted by Charlotte Fohner, a recent Nicolet Area Technical College graduate.
Fohner grew up overseas near the World War II D-Day beaches. The old bunkers and cemeteriesthere served as inspiration for her mural design.
"I thought, 'well how can something like that tie into the Northwoods because war has never really happened here' so the idea kind of came 'well you know our armed forces are overseas, they are protecting us in areas that are war-ridden and are just desert and dead ... and the fact that they are over there doing that allows that life to flourish here,'" she said.
Fohner, several teachers and other students started the project Thursday by priming the wall. Work continued on Friday. It took the group three and a half hours that day to outline the design and by 9 a.m. on Saturday everyone was painting the mural.
The left side of the mural is desert-like with five silhouettes for each branch of the military. As the bystander's gaze passes to the right the mural transitions into a lush, vibrant forest with wildlife and a Hodag.
Throughout the mural bits of the American flag show through.
There had been talk of changing the mural each year but now there is some debate about whether or not a new mural will be done every two years or if another area in Rhinelander will be blessed with a mural, according to Fohner.
"I think it might be something, there's been discussion about, why don't we do it every two years, and then another idea was why don't we find another place in Rhinelander to paint instead of just this one area, just beautify the whole city," Fohner said.
Fohner graduated from Nicolet with an associate's degree in applied science and graphic design.
She is planning to attend Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis where she hopes to earn a bachelor's degree in informatics and media arts and science.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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