BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. – A rift between two prominent men in town life has ended. They’ve toned down their rhetoric and made peace. It was all great spectator sport in this usually tranquil riverside town of 3,600. The rift exploded a year agio when Dave Hatch, owner of a downtown consignment emporium, hired muralists to spruce up an exterior wall. As the ,mural took form, all that Tom Cooper, president of the Downtown Association, could see was graffiti. Cooper had worked long and hard to clean up, modernize and revitalize the the main drag. “Then this new kid in town comes in and goes and puts up a doodle grid.” But as the muralists filled out their wall art, Cooper found it “absolutely gorgeous.” Hatch said un a WEAU interview: “Now we are on the same page.” The mural, which features gaudy 1950s cars and hot rods, also has come to mean more retailers downtown. The Black River Falls Car Show, for example, has relocated downtown. Other merchants are thinking about murals as a tourist attraction.
Broadside mural. Cody Sanderson, the lead of Cosa Ink, sees the community is embracing his work. “When I’m out here working, I peek around the corner and there’s always people taking pictures,” he said. Sanderson and buddy Alex Remen of LaCrosse integrate computer-assistaed design and 3-D printing in their work.