It’s called “A Wish on the Wind,” and it’s a sleeping giant.
The latest mural in Springville is one of the largest in the village, at 77 feet long, visible from Pearl Street on the side of the former Witter-Davis Furniture Co. building.
When completed later this week, it will depict the rolling hills and countryside around the village, alongside the silhouette of a slumbering giantess.
Discussion in the community in recent months has shown a divide between people who love the murals and those who think that there are too many of them, and that they don’t belong in a historic district.
The village Historic Preservation Commission is still reviewing proposed regulations to govern the murals. The Springville Center for the Arts fostered the public art program, forming the Public Art Corps with Springville Regional Service Coalition in 2021.
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Mural supporters hope that when “A Wish on the Wind” mural is finished, it will persuade those who are skeptical of public art.
Ashley Rae Lowry, who with her husband owns the building at 69 E. Main St. where the latest mural is being painted, said it would not be allowed under the regulations as first proposed.
“I find it fascinating to work in the public realm. It’s way more rewarding,” said mural artist Mandi Caskey of Columbus, Ohio, working on “A Wish on the Wind” in Springville on Friday.
A disagreement over one piece of art became a more wide-ranging debate common when the issue is public art: freedom of expression versus the character of the community.
“It almost didn’t happen,” she said.
The Historic Preservation Commission gave its final approval June 12.
Lowry said the artist, Mandi Caskey, took time to research the history of the area.
“She really took what some of the naysayers were saying and took it to heart,” Lowry said.
Some of Springville’s historic, but demolished, buildings are depicted. The 127-year-old Leland House, an old tavern on Main Street that was destroyed by fire in 2006, reappears around the corner on the mural. Caskey also added the original, but long gone, Griffith Institute Academy on Academy Street, which was the first high school in Erie County.
“I find it fascinating to work in the public realm. It’s way more rewarding,” said mural artist Mandi Caskey of Columbus, Ohio, working on “A Wish on the Wind” in Springville on Friday.
Caskey saw an Iroquois map on the wall at the Concord Historical Society several months ago. She was in town researching southern Erie County as part of planning for the mural, which is part of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s public art initiative.
The map features a depiction of the Stone Man, a mythological Iroquois figure, Village Historian Jolene Hawkins said. She said one of the cartographers was Ely Parker, a Tonawanda Seneca from Pembroke who was a lawyer, engineer, diplomat and one of Ulysses S. Grant’s top aides.
Mandi Caskey’s visit is part of Buffalo AKG’s public art initiative. Her 77-foot-long mural covers a painted sign for Witter-Davis Furniture Co., which used to be located in the building at 69 E. Main St., Springville.
The map describes stone giants as “wholly evil, [who] lived in stony places, came out and devoured people.”
“She really wanted to know the information,” Hawkins said of Caskey. “I knew she was going to do a good job, because she was going to hear the history and then draw the picture. That kind of got me thinking about how I can relate the city to the land and how we can connect that back to that original fantasy and mythological roots.”
Caskey created a story about a woman giantess who roamed the land and fell in love with the land and wanted to become part of it forever, so she could give back to the creatures who live here. She is sleeping, with lights glowing in the buildings on her shoulder. As her hair falls along her back, night moves toward dawn.
When the painting of a giant was first discussed, some were dubious.
The faded and peeling sign that was on the side of the former Witter-Davis Furniture Co., 69 E. Main St., Springville, has made way for a mural to be unveiled Aug. 11.
The most spectacular part of the mural remains to be painted before Mandi Caskey completes “A Wish on the Wind,” the latest in a series of public murals in Springville.
“We were stumped. Is she talking about Paul Bunyan?” said David Ploetz, a member of the Concord Historical Society. “What giant?”
But when he saw a sketch of her proposal, he said it made sense to him.
Caskey, who also goes by Miss Birdy, is from Columbus, Ohio. She has painted murals for 10 years.
“I find it fascinating to work in the public realm,” she said. “It’s way more rewarding, because you get to commune with people, engage with the environment, and also create something that is essentially free for everyone.”
The mural will be unveiled in a “Party on Pearl,” an end-of-summer street party, from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday. The party will feature live music and performances, a kids art reception and food truck.
