Mural adds beauty to Gordon Street

By Nathan Steele

A new mural by local  artist Maddy Matush has gone up on Gordon Street at KJ Johnson’s property, and it’s what the Custer Area Arts Council (CAAC) is hoping will be just the first of many. The mural is on an old retaining wall where a church once stood and reflects the beauty of the western South Dakota landscape, stretching from the Badlands and rolling prairies to the mountains and forests of the Black Hills.
“Maddy Matush is an amazing artist. She does beautiful art that’s really original,” said Krystal Hegerfeld of the CAAC.
“It’s quintessential South Dakota,” said Johnson.
Before, the wall was “an eyesore” said Johnson. “It was so ugly before and now it looks great.”
“It looked like it had leprosy,” she said, because of all the cracks and other cosmetic flaws. So she got together with the CAAC, and they made an agreement that if Johnson paid for the supplies and got the wall prepped for the mural, the council would cover paying for an artist.
“So we found an artist and a concept and went to work on it. KJ is just a great supporter of arts in the community, so it’s really fun to be able to do it with her,” said Hegerfeld.
The work on the mural started long before any paintbrushes could ever meet the wall. First, there were  weeks and weeks of preparation to ensure that the mural would last.
“We had numerous volunteers help with the prep work to get the wall ready for the artist,” said Johnson. Altogether, this prep work took much longer than the actual painting of the mural.
First, a structural engineer, Mark Bohn, volunteered his time to take a look to make sure the wall was going to last at least another 10 years.
After giving the wall the all clear, it had to be cleaned and scraped, which was done by Johnson and Micky Weink. Then some repairs needed to be accomplished as there were some cracks and spalling. The materials for this work were donated by Adam Boggs from Rock Solid Construction, and the work was done by Hegerfeld and Johnson. Finally, it was ready for primer. This was a special concrete sealer and primer that “was like painting with cake batter,” said Johnson. Marci O’Connell, Weink, Naomi Haroldson, Pat Hoffman, Linda Fayhe and Johnson all volunteered time for this stage of the mural work. There were also numerous private donations for the supplies
Then work on the mural itself could begin, which took Matush about a week and a half to complete—not too bad for her first ever mural. Matush has been doing art her whole life, but first started taking it seriously in high school. When she was about 20, she started pursuing it professionally.
“It went way faster than I thought. I thought it would take two months,” said Matush. Before this project, she said the largest thing she ever painted was probably a door.
She started by blocking out different sections with a paint roller and then going back over it with a smaller brush to fill in the details. As soon as it became clear what the mural was to become, it already started to attract admirers and visitors before it was finished.
“People would drive by and not say anything because I think they weren’t sure what it was, and then as soon as details filled in tons of people would stop,” said Matush.
Like many local artists, Matush is no stranger to painting the Black Hills landscape, so parts of the mural came along quickly, like the cathedral spires. Matush estimates she had painted them about 20 times before the mural, and for other parts of the landscape, she could simply turn around and look off into the distance for inspiration.  
“My reference was literally her backyard,” said Matush.
The attention and positive response that is already trickling in has proven to be the best part of this experience for Johnson. Some have even come up and knocked on her door to tell her how much they appreciate the new mural.
“So far we have not had any negative comments,” said Johnson.
“It brings the community together a bit I think,” said Matush.
If this mural continues to be well-received, and if others are interested in having a mural at their business or property, they might just keep coming.
“Our hope with this one is to write a sustaining grant to Arts Midwest and the South Dakota Arts Council so we can get money from state and federal endowments in order to do a new mural every year,” said Hegerfeld. The hope is for the mural project to focus on local artists and themes.
“We have a lot of great spaces in this town. Hopefully it’s just the first of many,” said Hegerfeld.
Johnson’s not done with the mural just yet though. Her next plan is to cooperate with the garden club to create a “linear park” along the mural for people to visit and enjoy the mural. Until then, Johnson urges people to get involved with the arts council to continue this kind of work in town.
“Support the arts council. They really are working hard to bring art to Custer and have it be part of our city and who we are,” said Johnson.