Muralist medler

The west side of Geneva’s town hall used to be a blank white wall.

There’s nothing wrong with a white wall. It was painted well, matched the clouds in the sky when they were puffy enough on beautiful summer days.

Most would walk past a white wall without thinking about it.

A muralist like Zach Medler, born in Geneva and the son of Portland’s Mike and Sue Medler, sees a blank wall as an opportunity.

It took him about three September days to breathe artistic life into that wall.

That side of town hall is now a visual testament to sights of the Loblolly Marsh, depicted best in the writings of Gene Stratton-Porter.

The eternal sunrise painted on the side of the building gives way to the animals and marsh that used to occupy the entirety of the area. Painted near the ground are a turtle and a frog near birds such as a cardinal and a goldfinch.

A bald eagle acts as a sort of guardian in the mural, but no animal is more prominent than the centered great blue heron, seen watching the looming horizon over the Limberlost Swamp.

Limberlost naturalist Curt Burnette said seeing the eagle and heron would be uncommon in Stratton-Porter’s day but now they’re all over the Limberlost due to conservation efforts.

“It’s just such an important feature in the midwest,” said Medler, now a Lafayette resident, who has spent countless hours cycling the marsh and appreciating the modern rehabilitation of the local nature preserve.

The Geneva mural was commissioned as part of the Make It Your Own Mural Fest, which saw the creation of 11 new murals in 11 counties in northeast Indiana in 11 days in September. Medler’s mural proposal for Geneva was selected and what he calls the collaboration process that eventually led to his newest creation.

The mural fest, sponsored by the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, tasked Colton Bickel of Adams County Economic Development Corporation with helping decide where the mural should go in Adams County.

After considering buildings in Berne, Monroe and Decatur, it was ultimately decided that a mural on Geneva’s town hall was a perfect spot both to attract tourism and compliment the adjacent garden, Bickel said.

“You’ve got to have the citizens that are currently there to be proud of the community,” said Bickel, adding that murals instill community pride in addition to economic benefits.

“We have a lot of people coming to town to see it,” Limberlost naturalist Curt Burnette said. “Everybody likes it.”

Burnette said the Limberlost has recieved plenty of traffic from visitors who stopped by after seeing the new Geneva mural.

“I always think of (murals) as collaborations because they’re always conversations,” Medler said, referring him working with the community to learn more about the area and what it wanted out of its mural.

Painting landscapes is relatively new to Medler’s repertoire, he said, but he enjoys working on them and highlighting the natural beauty of the world. He said he has done about 20 mural-level projects. He received help on the Geneva mural from Fort Wayne mentees DeVona Lahrman and Jade Kelsey.

Murals were also painted in Bluffton on the side of Parlor City Plaza by an artist from Portland, Oregon, and in downtown Huntington by Huntington native America Carrillo.

Both murals are akin to the Geneva mural as being nature-focused. The Bluffton mural is highlighted by an oriole native to the area while the Huntington mural features a floral array below various birds.

Medler, who spent many days in Portland helping his grandparents at their furniture store, is looking forward to the day he can permanently improve some walls in the largest city in Jay County.

“I can’t wait to do a mural in Portland. And I will eventually,” he said, adding that walls at Medler’s Furniture and other places around town would make for good canvases.

A mural on the history of Dunkirk was completed on the north side of the Weaver Building downtown by Pamela Bliss, which Medler complimented. The Dunkirk mural features multi-dimensional elements and highlights the history of the city, particularly its prominence in the glass industry.

Bliss, a Wayne County native, is also responsible for the Portland Rockets 60th anniversary mural on the south side of Hall’s Ritz Theatre and the Elwood Haynes mural on the north side of the Eagles building, completed in Portland in 2019 and 2013, respectively.

Medler said a mural proposal he submitted to Portland was denied in October because it wasn’t historically focused enough.

“That’s not the type of muralist I am,” said Medler, adding that he aims to honor the history of a community with a focus on the future and what the community can be.

That’s the meaning of the Geneva mural, he said, showing what the land once was and what it can be again if the natural wildlife area is preserved better than it was in centuries past.

The mural reveal was marked by a celebration event Sept. 19, at which music was played and Burnette spoke as Paxson, a character he often depicts who was referenced in Stratton-Porter’s books as “her best Limberlost guide,” Burnette said.

“That was some of the most fun I’ve had on a mural project. It was a really enjoyable experience,” Medler said.

Several projects Medler had lined up this year were sidelined because of the coronavirus pandemic. The most notable of those, he said, was a canvas he was asked to paint in Singapore, where his wife, Mindy, is from, during Chinese New Year celebrations.

Medler, thankful in retrospect, said he decided to stay home rather than risk contracting and spreading the virus. However, it was a loss of a major opportunity to establish himself as an international artist, he said.

“I was really excited about it,” Medler said, adding it was the first time he would legally paint overseas. “But it is what it is.”

Cancellations also hit Medler’s income as an artist this year, he said, adding that he often lives out the stereotypes of a starving artist.

“This is my job. We try to do everything we can to scrape by,” Medler said, noting there are good years and bad years as an artist and the pandemic did everything in its power to make sure it was a difficult year to get work.

Bonnie Maitlen of Portland Rotary Club recently said Medler has been recruited to paint a mural in Portland but that the location is still being decided.