By Lara Baehr

Human Resources Manager, City of Marshfield

The City of Marshfield’s Wellness Committee wanted to encourage healthy lifestyles by beautifying City Hall’s seven flights of stairs and thereby encouraging everyone that works at and visits City Hall to walk the stairs.

With this in mind, local artists were called upon to paint murals in the stairwell. Artists were given $100 to help cover some of the cost of the art supplies.

Currently, there are ten completed murals in the stairwell with six in progress. Four of the remaining murals are being completed by area high school art students from Spencer High School, Columbus High School, Stratford High School, and Colby High School.

We hope to have all murals completed by the spring of 2015. The murals vary in size with some being as large as 10 feet by 10 feet.

A snap shot of the art work that has been completed includes:

• An abstract portrait by Ines Krolo titled “Joy”
• A Swedish and Norwegian mural with a rose mauling technique framing the mural by Carol Bender and Lin Schoenleben titled “Scandinavian Folk Art”
• Landscape art including a rainbow titled “After the Storm” and a second mural titled “Central Wisconsin State Fair” by Dana Speth
• A mural of a tree with an antiqued wallpaper finish background titled “Antiqued Wallpaper” and a second one titled “Japanese Cherry Blossom” by Katie Slaby
• A mural of a woman sitting on a bench in the woods titled “Solitude” and a second mural titled “Wildwood Station” by Brian Foltz
• A Marshfield historical picture of Central Avenue titled “Signs of Yesterday” by Kris Leonhardt
• An enlarged Nasturtium flower mural by Victoria Mesa titled “Spring in Marshfield”

Additionally, volunteers with Youth Net have painted inspirational sayings in the stairwell. I encourage all to come walk the stairs for your health and to appreciate the beautiful art work.