Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Alley Activation Project for the alleyway between the updated City Hall and the new Maui Melts location wrapped up, Western student McKenna Brinkman was tasked with painting a mural on the bare wall that hadn\u2019t been touched by the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project, funded by a grant from the AARP, aims to understand how the pedestrian alleyway can best serve the community. In two phases, the project seeks to incorporate peaceful, calming elements, while also providing an inclusive space and is part of the larger 2042 Downtown Improvement Plan. The 2042 Downtown Improvement Plan is what will guide city policy and planning over the next 20 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brinkman, who goes by \u201cMick,\u201d started the mural in October, after Maui Melts owners Graham and Ruthie had seen her chalk art in The Sippery, where she has worked since the spring of this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve enjoyed about the job is getting to do all the art for the chalkboards,\u201d Brinkman said. \u201cA couple of my regulars (have) been coming in every day since they own and have been working on the new Maui Melts next door. We\u2019ve gotten to know each other through conversations while I make their soy lattes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mural \u2014 a painting of an enlarged longhorn beetle, which is native to Oregon \u2014 sits on a grey background on the east exterior wall of Maui Melts, facing Monmouth City Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGraham and Ruthie were extremely encouraging the whole way through the month-long process,\u201d she said. \u201cI think (a) cool experience I had while doing this mural was talking (with) locals who would ask about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brinkman has always enjoyed art, something she says was natural to her as a child. When she came to Western as a first-year, she started as a biology major, but after taking a drawing class, she switched her major to art and never looked back. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed every single art class I have taken in my time here,\u201d she said. \u201cThere has yet to be a moment where I have felt burnt out with art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love how this has further bonded me with the Monmouth community. I am happy to leave my mark, literally, on Motown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor When the Alley Activation Project for the alleyway between the updated City Hall and the new Maui Melts location wrapped up, Western student McKenna Brinkman was tasked with painting a mural on the bare wall that hadn\u2019t been touched by the project. The project, funded by a grant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4938,55,2870,4934,4931,4937,4930,4932,4933,4944,4941,1195,2869,4943,4936,4945,309,4935,4940,507,4939,683,4244,4942,684,1556,608],"class_list":["post-21874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-aarp","tag-art","tag-art-and-design","tag-art-and-design-major","tag-art-and-design-student","tag-art-major","tag-art-student","tag-beetle","tag-biology-major","tag-chalk-art","tag-city-hall","tag-coffee","tag-design","tag-lattes","tag-longhorn-beetle","tag-maui-melts","tag-monmouth","tag-motown","tag-mural","tag-oregon","tag-soy","tag-student","tag-student-art","tag-the-sippery","tag-western","tag-western-oregon","tag-western-oregon-university"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21877,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions\/21877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}