Waupaca mural stirs controversy

Artist leaves her mark

By James Card

It all started with Brooke Bebout getting a late-night text message. One of her friends said a traveling artist was painting a mural in all 50 states. Did she know where the artist could paint a mural in Wisconsin?

Bebout owns the Revival on West Fulton Street. She has a blank wall in the alley that separates her building from Shindig, which has a huge mural that was painted last summer by Dory Tischendorf. Bebout loved the idea of having a mural on her building.

Early the next morning on July 10, Jules Muck (julesmuck.com) shows up at the boutique from Minnesota. Muck is an artist from California who has painted murals since the 90s. She’s painted murals for television shows, political figures, humanitarian efforts and memorials such as one for Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister.

Bebout rounded up a couple ladders and Muck got to work while Dada, her bloodhound travel companion, hung out in the store. Muck started around 8:30 a.m.

“I showed her the two places that I had and she said she would do both. She was so fast it was hard to keep up with her,” said Bebout.

Muck was done by 1 p.m. She painted a large portrait of a woman in the alley shared with Shindig and another smaller mural of flowers and butterflies on exposed brick that is above the Mouse’s Art Supply and Studio. Then she was gone. Her next stop was Indiana.

“I told her she could do what she wanted. I looked at her work and it is all amazing. She said that she likes to let the building speak to her. She came and walked around my store to get a vibe and that how she decided on that one for the colors and stuff. She wanted to use the color of the bricks so the bricks ended up being the fabric and skin tone for the lady,” said Bebout.

A day later, Jarod Kivela, the city’s community and economic development director, visited the store. He later sent Bebout an email stating that she would need two permits.

At first, Bebout thought she would file for the permits immediately but then she did some research and decided that the mural permit was unconstitutional.

She replied back to Kivela that the mural was a work of spontaneous creativity and explained this was not commissioned nor was it a sign or advertisement. She warned the city to “spend some time considering how you plan to proceed because I plan to fight this with every connection and resource at my disposal.”

Bebout concluded, “This is not a ‘problem.’ This is art.”

The Waupaca County Post contacted Kivela by email for clarification about city’s rules about murals. He said the ordinance is relatively new and was created to encourage public art but also to clean up the city’s signage code. Previously murals were part of that ordinance and required a fee. Now that murals and signs are separated, the application and permit for a mural is free.

If Bebout does not go through the permit process then the city would follow a non-compliance/violation process. The person would be notified and sent a letter stating the violation and providing a timeline to remedy the situation. If that action is not taken then citations are issued each day until compliance is met.

“Murals are like most other First Amendment items in that we cannot regulate by content, for the most part. We can look at the content to determine if the proposed art installation has any advertising or business messaging in it. If it does, we would require the applicant to go through a signage permit process instead of a mural permit process,” said Kivela.

“We also can evaluate the content of the proposed mural to ensure that it is in the public’s interest. For example, we can look at community aesthetics, traffic/pedestrian safety, and vulgar messaging when evaluating a mural as these are three examples of substantial government interests that we can uphold without violating precedents set by case law and individual’s First Amendment rights,” he said.

Kivela also pointed out a section in the mural code for when a mural starts to decay: “… is chipped, peeling, or in any way unsightly, will be required to be removed at the cost of the property owner.” This would most likely be a situation where the wrong kind of paint was used.

Bebout recently started a petition on www.change.org, and garnered 31 supporting signatures in two hours. The petition is titled, “Eliminate the Requirement for Permits to Paint Murals in Waupaca.”