New murals bringing positivity, splash of color to downtown St. Charles
Sporting messages like "You Made It!" and "Just Keep Growing," five new murals are welcoming visitors to downtown St. Charles with positivity and a splash of color.
The murals were created by St. Charles Business Alliance and New York artist Steffi Lynn. Lynn designed three of the murals - including the "You Made It!" mural - and two of the murals were designed by the St. Charles Business Alliance.
"She is very popular on Instagram," St. Charles Business Alliance Executive Director Jenna Sawicki said. "She has over 132,000 followers. She's famous for her 'Have A Nice Day' mural. She does very positive affirmations, and she has partnered with a lot of major brands like Ulta. Her three murals were specifically inspired by St. Charles."
The other two murals were created by the St. Charles Business Alliance's marketing team.
Fittingly enough, the series of murals is being called Bloom In St. Charles.
"They're all positive affirmations, and they all have some sort of flower theme," Sawicki said. "The point was to bring interactive art to the downtown area. When people are coming to St. Charles, we want them to have a good day. It really has drawn a great demographic of people."
Sawicki hopes those same people explore the rest of downtown St. Charles to see what it has to offer. By doing so, they will also discover all types of art throughout the city, including the sculptures at Mt. St. Mary Park.
"It definitely builds upon what the community has already built and adds more positivity and draws people to come and check out our town," she said. "We had a lot of success with the 'Be You' sculpture that we installed in 2020. It blew away even our expectations of how many people that would draw. So we wanted to build upon the positive messaging and work with an artist that has a lot of followers in general. It was really cool to have her art that was inspired by our community here."
Chicago-based artist Matthew Hoffman made the sculpture, which is installed in the East Plaza/Riverwalk that is part of the First Street project in downtown St. Charles. The sculpture's popularity took off after celebrity Paris Hilton posted a photo of herself next to the sculpture on her Instagram page.
The murals are scattered throughout the downtown. Sawicki said the murals have been well received.
"We're getting constantly tagged in photos, which is great because people are coming to visit from outside of town and even in town to come and enjoy the murals," she said. "And hopefully from there, they are enjoying our restaurants and our retail and also just seeing everything the community has to offer. We have such a vibrant area in the downtown and hopefully, they get the chance to check all that out."
More information about Bloom In St. Charles, including the locations of the murals, is available at the St. Charles Business Alliance's website, stcalliance.org.