Paint, sweat & tears; Main Street Greenville unveils new mural

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Mural sponsors, Kristi and Sean Strawser of Beanz Buttercream stand to the left of the new mural with artists Jennifer Overholser, Joe Wintrow and Stephanie Schieltz-Lowder on the right. (Submitted photo)

GREENVILLE – Main Street Greenville’s Mural Committee’s latest addition had a “brush in” with the corner of Walnut and 3rd St. on the Beanz Buttercream building. The committee’s first painted mural is combined with vinyl text and wraps around the building. It was accomplished with the hard work of professional artists and committee members generously donating sweat equity to the project: Jennifer Overholser, Stephanie Schieltz-Lowder, and Joe Wintrow. Wintrow Signs produced the vinyl text background.

Beanz owners Kristi and Sean Strawser were interested in using their building for a mural and having a tribute to their daughter who died of a rare mitochondrial disease in 2013. The design, originally created by their daughter, the late Corynna Strawser while doodling in a book, was modified slightly to add color to the birds in her design. Instead of the page in that book, the text behind the art design was newsprint excerpted from an article about the opening of Beanz Buttercream. In the text, it relates the naming of the bakery to their daughter’s nickname, Bean.

“Corynna loved creating and experiencing art in many forms and it brought so much joy in her life,” shared Kristi Strawser. “She would have loved seeing our community sprinkled with art and color.” Funding for the mural came from the Ohio Arts Council and Beanz Buttercream as well as Wintrow Signs. The public is invited to the next large mural “watch party” on Friday, Sept. 20th at 1 p.m. in the City parking lot next to the Brightspeed building. A watercolor created by Greenville native Don Mong showing a scene with the City Park stockades has been digitized and will be produced on vinyl for installation on the brick wall. The Mural Committee will be honoring the city workers with lunch that day to thank them for all their tornado clean-up work. Please watch for further details. “Corynna also believed deeply in kindness,” recalled Strawser.

“She taught us so much about how impactful we can be and we are thankful these artists captured her legacy on our building,” she concluded.