JANESVILLE Mural artists, a chalk competition, plentiful art exhibits, the farmers market, rock painting, live music, and even a scavenger hunt, spread out through downtown Janesville as part of Art Infusion this past weekend.
Mural artists could be found throughout the day Friday working on their art, being lifted by telescopic boom lifts, and interacting with the public.
Janesville native Valerie Saxer painted a butterfly mural on the Midwest Indoor Storage building, at 314 West Milwaukee Street, in 1999. It was painted over this year when new owners repaired the bricks. This weekend she added a new butterfly mural where the old one used to be.
To me, the butterfly theme means transformation and progress and in the past 24 years, Janesville has made a lot of progress, she said. Im going to silhouette [my 20-month-old granddaughter, Phoebe] Banksy style and shes [going to be] the transformation, sending it off.
A large group of children and adults crossed the street to get to Saxers mural.
This group was the Classical Conversations of Janesville, a homeschooling community. One of the groups parents, Cameron Pickering, said they were touring Art Infusion for their weekly field trip Fridays.
Weve been studying how every painting and picture is made up of different shapes, she said. It goes along with what were learning in our community right now. Around 15 children and several of their parents observed the artists working on their murals.
Its also great to hear from the artist, Pickering said. We get to watch the transformation.
Children approached Saxer on the boom lift, and confidently looked at their parents, who encouraged them to ask questions and engage in conversation with her.
I loved talking to them and I loved how some of the older parents were saying they grew up looking at this mural and were so familiar with it and suddenly, it was gone, Saxer said. So they were glad to see another version of the butterfly.
Although activities were available throughout the weekend, some events were only held on certain days.
The special event of Friday was the RE-LIT artist reception at the Rock County Historical Society.
Saturday events included a free bird scooter tour, farmers market, the launch of the painted piano, Reunion on the Rock, and rock painting.
Sundays events included the scavenger hunt, a makers market, and live music on the Looking Glass Patio.
Jeff Henriquez, of Brooklyn, was up in the air on Friday afternoon, swaying his shoulders and moving to the rhythm of Method Mans, I Get My Thang in Action, as he was working on the left corner section of his newest mural located behind Rileys on the Green, 221 West Milwaukee Street.
I absolutely love James Rosenquists work. Ive loved it since I was getting into art, Henriquez said. Hes from the Midwest and Mid-Westerners are very blue collar people. So this is blue collar contemporary art for the people, in collaboration with one of my painting idols using my own style.
The vibrant blue and pink colors in his newest mural depict Henriquezs inspiration of pop art from Rosenquist. Henriquez brought along an assistant, Free Humanity, an artist from LA, who he met on Instagram.
We were looking at each others artwork on Instagram and just started to build up respect for each other, Henriquez said. I see what theyre doing or the way theyre doing their craft and its interesting, I respect it.
Kim Hoholek, a contracted photographer for the Janesville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, observed the murals and interacting with the artists on Friday afternoon.
I think the murals are going to draw in more visitors to the area, Hoholek said. A lot of people appreciate art and Art Infusion has brought in amazing artists in the past. With Jeff Henriquez coming back for the fourth time and CJ [Hungerman] coming back for his second time. Its interesting coming back and seeing the artist and what theyre going to produce.
Hoholek has watched the artists paint murals since 2019 and looks forward to it each year.
CJ Hungerman, of Chicago, worked on a colorful bird mural on the East wall of 113 West Milwaukee Street. Hungerman hasnt attended Art Infusion since his first time in 2021, and he had a great time reuniting with some good friends and making art in Janesville.
The artists spent the rest of their week completing their murals while the chalk art competition took place from Saturday to Sunday. The winners of the 18+ category are: first place, Cecilia Speece; second place Sophia Speece; and third place, Melissa Lehuray. The winners of the 17-and-under category: are first place, Clare Speece; second place, Monica Speece; and third place, Tristan Jeffrey, according to the Art Infusion Facebook Page.