Another "Welcome to Menomonie" mural update from Menomonie native and artist Dale Manor:
Next step on the "Welcome to Menomonie" mural project is image preparation. There is quite a bit of prep work that has to happen in order to paint a mural of this scale and detail. I have already ordered a couple hundred dollars worth of Nova Artist Acrylic paint to add to the paint that we have on hand. I also ordered a couple hundred dollars worth of new brushes and two gallons of background paint colors. Plus, I bought an additional set of Bakers scaffold and several easels.
Along with the list above, we are going to need both reference art and transparencies of all the different elements of the mural that will eventually get projected onto the wall. We are also going to need a scaled version of the art to do the layout work.
I have attached an image of some of the reference images that I have completed so far. I will need to mount the large prints on a rigid substrate so they can be used during the painting process.
And the Letters for today are N & I. The folks at the Rassbach Museum have been good enough to provide us with another short history lesson.
N & I ---- MABEL TAINTER MEMORIAL
Lumber baron Andrew Tainter and his wife Bertha commissioned the construction of the Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater in 1889 as a tribute to their daughter Mabel, a young woman who loved music and the arts. Designed by architect Harvey Ellis, the theater's Dunnville sandstone exterior was brought by rail and barge from a nearby quarry along the Red Cedar River.
The interior of the building features hand-stenciled walls and ceilings, marble staircase and floors, leaded stained-glass windows, walnut and oak woodwork, brass fixtures, and four fireplaces, each built with a different stone or technique. The theater still houses a working original Steere & Turner tracker pipe organ.
In 2007, the theater underwent an extensive renovation, including an addition, to address safety, accessibility and building issues. The addition is clad in sandstone taken from the original quarry, which, with time, will blend with the original Richardsonian Romanesque building.
From the beginning, the theater served as a road house for professional touring companies and later as a facility for high school and other local productions. The intimate 261-seat theater continues to offer a full season of professional performing arts events featuring nationally recognized artists as well as outstanding local theatrical and musical talent.
The facility is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a charter member of the League of Historic American Theatres and is a designated Wisconsin Historical Marker Site. It is a premier example of a restored vintage American theater.
Thanks, Take care.
Dale Manor owns Studio in the Sky in Minneapolis. Check out his artwork on the Studio in the Sky website and on Dale's Facebook page.
