Artist Ken Brown has begun work on his 620-foot long mural, called "The Hero In You," on a 6-foot high wall that runs along MacArthur Square on North James Lovell Drive Downtown.
Announced in mid-May, the work will feature 10 Downtown essential workers and promises to be a vivid reminder of Milwaukee's COVID-19 pandemic response.
You can read about the workers in a blog post at milwaukeedowntown.com/experience/blog.
Brown, a Milwaukee native, also has work in Black Cat Alley.
That is one LONG wall.
Brown – whose work has a stained-glass look – has begun sketching the mural onto the wall and painting in some portions as he goes. He is expected to be at work most days, weather permitting, until the end of July.
Stop over, watch his progress and cheer him on.
A meeting is slated for next week regarding the new mural for the skywalk that spans North 2nd Street, and projected start and completion dates for that work – "Kindred" by Wisconsin native Jaime Brown – should be announced soon after.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
