The Spring Ephemerals mural at Kathie Wheeler Fine Art Gallery in Viroqua, Wisconsin was a collaborative project between Stella Greendeer, Natalie Hinahara, and Anna Kimm. Anna shares the story behind the mural.

The Spring Ephemerals mural grew out of a shared love of nature and native plants. Kathie Wheeler, the gallery owner and a talented painter herself, had envisioned a mural on this wall for a long time, and after seeing our work at Maybe Lately’s Cafe, she reached out to see if we’d be interested. Stella, Natalie, and I jumped at the chance. From the beginning, the project was fully collaborative. Every sketch, plant choice, and color decision was discussed and shaped together.

Before we painted the mural, the wall was unpainted cinder block, so Kathie generously primed it for us. We chose a dark grey background to let the plants stand out, giving them a luminous, almost glowing presence. At the center, a dramatic Jack-in-the-pulpit rises with a striated pink and green spathe, surrounded by delicate white and pink trillium, small bloodroot blossoms, violets, marsh marigold, and box elder seed tassels.

Our hope is that the mural feels alive, delicate, and playful, a homage to these fleeting, ephemeral blooms that appear for only a few weeks each spring in the hills and meadows around Viroqua.

If you enjoy discovering murals, you can explore our collaborative piece at Maybe Lately’s Cafe along with other local works by Peter Hodapp, Karen Innis, and Sarah Pederson. Take a walk through Viroqua and let the colors, shapes, and stories of these public artworks reveal the creativity thriving throughout this community.