South Bend Adds a Touch of Color

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- It all started with one man's idea. Along a bustling street, local artist, Chris Stackowicz, works alongside volunteers. Although it is hot, that does not seem to bother them as they work with one goal in mind: to make South Bend more welcoming. "We came up with a five year project that is redoing all of the entrance ways into the city in giant mural projects, not that are just done by one artist, but instead they are done by the entire community," explains Stackowicz. "In this case, I happen to be the one designing it, but everybody is painting it which is kind of fun."Each element of the design is taken from the best of the city's architecture. "We just sort of pieced it together, I wanted to make it a little funky and fun, just taking the architecture and rearranging it, opening up the space and cleaning it up," says Stackowicz.All of the mural painters are volunteers. All of the paint and supplies have been donated by The Home Depot and Bear Paint. Even the food and drink has been provided free of charge from local eateries like Starbucks and Jimmy Johns."The joy of being able to do this, it shows how much the city supports us, the county supports us, local businesses, and the community in general.The mural will be done by mid-September and they plan on painting the entire bridge and the wall across the street. Anyone can come out and help with the effort to bring some color to the city. The info for painting the 933 bridge is on their website at 933bridge.com.