|
MOUNT
HOREB - The paint has been flying the past few weeks
at Millennium Murals here as it rushed to meet a deadline
for the unveiling of the latest doll in the American
Girls Collection.
The
studio, headed by nationally-renowned artist Peggy Flora
Zalucha, has painted the backdrops used in the displays
at the American Girl Place, a three- story, 35,000-square-foot
retail store around, the corner from Chicago's Magnificent
Mile.
There, each of the characters has a display case behind
plexiglass, with a colorful mural in the background.
The murals are 13 feet long and 34 inches tall.
Pleasant
Company provides a computer-generated drawing on a vinyl
board that Zalucha and colleagues Tamlyn Akins and Doug
Haynes then complete with acrylic paint. It received
the latest Pleasant Company board on Aug. 5 and just
completed the mural by the Tuesday deadline. "We've
all been working on it, kind of coming and going,"
said Zalucha, who founded Millennium Murals two years
ago. She said the work involved about 60 hours of artist
time.
Zalucha said one of the biggest challenges on the mural
for the "Kit" Kittredge character was keeping
her identity secret. The company had not introduced
a doll since 1997 and the latest version was much anticipated.
"I have nieces who have been just frantic but I
couldn't talk," she said.
Zalucha
landed the Pleasant Company mural work through her connection
to company founder Pleasant Rowland. Rowland had first
recruited Zalucha to create posters for the Concerts
on the Square when they debuted in the 1980s.
In
addition to work for Pleasant Company, Millennium Murals
has produced unique portable murals for the State Bank
of Cross Plains and Mount Horeb High School, among others.
The
murals are priced by the square foot, ranging from $
1,000 to $4,000. Zalucha also said the same design can
be painted over and over again. But since each work
is hand painted, they are all slightly different. "You
could order 15 copies but they would all be unique,"
she said.
|
