Newest Downtown Henderson Mural Blends Whimsy with Vision

Original article published in The Gleaner by Chuck Stinnett, photography by Sam Owens. - May 27, 2021.

The latest mural in Downtown Henderson is taking root on a south-facing stucco wall at 19 S. Main St.

The creation by artist Grace Henderson features a willow tree with roots embracing and intertwined around an outline of the state of Kentucky, as though a living thing is drawing its life-giving nourishment from the commonwealth. It could be regarded as the most literal of the four public murals created Downtown since 2018.

“It is pretty literal,” Henderson agreed, “but it’s also whimsical.”

From the branches of the leaning tree will hang nine feathers, an homage to the feather logo that accompanies the community Vision Plan mantra to “Discover Your nature” here.

The feathers hanging from the branches of the willow tree symbolize eight nonprofit organizations: the Henderson Area Arts Alliance (where Henderson works as patron services coordinator), Habitat for Humanity of Henderson, Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Midwest Kentucky, the Chloe Randolph Organization, Matthew 25 AIDS Services, the Henderson County Public Library, Riverview School and Kentucky NORML.

The latter is the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Henderson, who said she has been diagnosed with 23 often-debilitating chronic illnesses, says she has found tremendous relief using legal CBD (cannabidiol) tincture to treat her numerous symptoms.

The ninth feather honors Twisted Nature Bonsai, a business owned by a friend in Louisville that is helping underwrite the cost of supplies and paint for her mural.

“Most willows don’t have bends like this,” Henderson said one recent morning, pointing to the sketch book in which she drew a series of concepts for her creation, “and they also don’t have feathers,” explaining some of the whimsy in the mural.

But she has also incorporated a lot of thoughtfulness and intentionality in her creation, titled “Kentucky Roots Mural.”

For instance, the state outline is filled with the Flower of Life, a geometric pattern of repeating, overlapping blue circles. The Flower of Life belongs to sacred geometry, which ascribes symbolic meanings to certain geometric shapes.

“The idea of sacred geometry is, we all come from one place,” Henderson said. “We interact with one another and we all have a role to play.”

The Flower of Life, along with the red heart she has painted on the map where the community of Henderson is located, is part of a vision by Henderson to inspire unity at a time when the nation is so fraught with division.

“After the last (presidential) election, I thought we were all so divided,” Henderson said. “I thought we all needed to be reminded of what we have in common.”

“The more we see everything as separate, the more separate we’ll feel,” she said.

Ironically, Theresa Steele, a local artist who has collaborated with Henderson, shares very different political views than her.

“Theresa and I are political opposites,” Henderson said, yet they are able “to make it work” as friends and fellow artists.

Indeed, art is what drew them together. Henderson was decorating her downtown apartment last year and was shopping at ReStore, the second-hand home goods store operated by Habitat for Humanity, where Steele works as volunteer coordinator. Henderson was pleased to find some prints of artwork by the Russian-born French artist known as Erté; Steele took note of what Henderson had purchased.

“She said, ‘You look like you like art. You want to hang out?’” Henderson said. “I said, ‘Yes!’”

Henderson’s history with art goes back years. “I drew and sketched from the time I was probably four,” she said. “In college, I studied costume design,” which involved lots of drawing.

But then, she said, “I really stopped drawing for a long time. I started sewing instead.” She became a seamstress and 10 years ago opened a business, Gracely Crafted, describing herself as a “jack of all trades” who works in sewing, tailoring, dressmaking, costume design, framing, decoupage, interior design and as a decor consultant.

Henderson had creation of a mural in mind ever since last year when she helped Maddy Fritz paint one behind the Bugg Realty building at 17 S. Main St. “I made an agreement: I would help her paint if she would help me paint,” Henderson said.

Also last summer, Henderson helped Steele paint a mural at Izzy’s Italian Restaurant on the square in Morganfield.

Steele credits that mural, along with murals she painted on the rear privacy fence at her home on Clay Street, with keeping them sane during the pandemic.

“We had nothing to do,” she said. Planning and painting murals helped keep their hands and minds occupied.

“Theresa and I walk and talk art a lot,” Henderson said.

“One afternoon, we stopped here (at the current mural site) and she said, ‘I think we could paint some flowers on the side’” of the stucco wall, Steele said. “Because it’s a giant blank canvas. And ugly.”

But over time, Henderson said she “started to visualize a willow tree.”

“I love willows,” she said. “Also, I visit Central Park every day and I think Henderson prides itself on the variety of trees in the park, but in Central Park there are no willows, and willows mean ‘community.’”

Henderson secured permission from the building’s owner, Kent Preston, to paint the mural.

“We started at the end of April when the rain finally let up” and she projected her digitally drawn Kentucky outline and the Flower of Life patterns so she, Steele and Fritz could trace the images onto the stucco wall for painting later.

Henderson and her helpers — Steele, Fritz, Heather McCormick, Cherry Liles, Jordyn Myracle, Jessica Bryant and Jule McClellan — paint the mural with Nova Color acrylic artists’ paint, “a highly pigmented acrylic paint,” she said.

When completed, her mural will stand between 15 and 20 feet high. How long it will take to complete “is the million-dollar question,” Henderson said. “I can’t control the weather” or her ongoing health issues.

As with the other public murals in the central business district — “Discover Your Nature” on the west wall of the Baird building at Second and Elm streets beside The Perch pocket park, “The Murial” geometric design on a pier of the railroad overpass on North Main Street and “Nourish” at the back of 17 S. Main St. — Henderson hopes folks will visit hers and take selfie photos with “Kentucky Roots Mural.”

“I would like for people in selfies to point to where their Kentucky roots are,” she said.

“It’s going to be amazing,” Steele said of her friend’s creation. “Grace has done a great job.”

She believes this fourth downtown mural might not be the last.

“We need more murals,” Steele declared. “We need to bring more murals.”

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