Downtown mural featured during upcoming art festival
By David Little davidl@wctrib.com

 “Healing Rays of Light,’’ a new downtown mural located at the corner of Third Street and Becker Avenue Southwest, will be featured Sept. 15 during the 10th annual Celebrate Art! Celebrate Coffee! art festival weekend in Willmar.

Mural artist Karen Kosmas of Spicer will meet the public from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sept. 15.

Kosmas, with the assistance of two others, painted the mural on the south wall of the building owned by O’Malley and Boe Land Surveyors Inc.

The new mural replaces the historical montage painted in 1997 by muralist Gary Butzer of Morton. Butzer is known for painting murals on barns and buildings in southern Minnesota. Butzer’s mural reflected Willmar’s heritage, showing everything from grain fields to trains to soldiers to a giant cardinal representing Willmar High School.

The new mural depicts orange, blue, cream and white rays of light emanating from above through circles and shapes of purple, green, dark blue and light blue.

The mural is a project of the Public Art Committee of the Willmar Design Center and was designed in cooperation with Rice Memorial Hospital.

The Design Center’s Public Art Committee asked the hospital to participate, since the mural is located directly across from the hospital. Peggy Sietsema, associate administrator in charge of clinical departments, was assigned to the project. Sietsema has since retired from Rice Hospital.

“I suppose I was assigned because I’ve been quite involved and worked with the art committee that had helped do the selections of the art for the hospital itself,’’ said Sietsema.

Others on the selection committee were Design Center Project Coordinator Beverly Dougherty and Design Center board members Judy Wright and Connie Feig. Allison Geiger of Buffalo Fish Fine Art Gallery of Willmar also helped.

Sietsema said the hospital was interested because the mural can be seen from the hospital’s healing garden and from about 40 percent of the patient rooms. Sietsema said the committee wanted colors and images to be soothing and pleasing.

“You don’t want things that are too busy or that are disturbing images,’’ she said. “We wanted things that would be pleasing to a very diverse population from kids to elders to different cultural groups.’’

Kosmas created the design.

“They had the idea and I came up with what it would look like,’’ said Kosmas, who was assisted in the painting process by Don Swanson and her sister, Sandy Rumney.

A 1960 graduate of Willmar High School, Kosmas has been painting since 1988. She took two years of drawing and watercolor lessons from published artist Cheryl Cohn, attended seminars and studied step-by-step art books.

In 1990, Kosmas said she discovered painting on silk. She said galleries in Branson, Reed Springs and Columbia, Mo., and in Tubac, Ariz., have carried her work.

Kosmas has dedicated herself to painting murals during the past seven years. To date, she’s painted 30 indoor murals and 20 outdoor murals.

Tribune photo by Ron Adams Karen Kosmas of Spicer works Aug. 5 on the new mural in downtown Willmar. Kosmas and the mural will be featured Sept. 15 during the Celebrate Art! Celebrate Coffee! festivities in Willmar.



Tribune photo by Ron Adams ABOVE: The “healing rays” of the new downtown mural painted by Spicer artist Karen Kosmas begin to shine through the old mural as work progresses on the project which will give a new look to the brick wall across from Rice Memorial Hospital at Third Street Southwest and Becker Avenue in downtown Willmar.



Tribune file photo RIGHT: The original mural, painted in 1997 by Gary Butzer of Morton, reflected Willmar’s heritage, showing everything from grain fields to trains to soldiers to a giant cardinal representing Willmar High School.



Tribune photo by Ron Adams Karen Kosmas of Spicer does some of the retouching work Aug. 5, filling in spots that were not covered by the first coat of paint on the brick as she works on her mural in downtown Willmar.