Travel Experiences with Jeff and Cindy Barganier
Maddie’s Marion Murals
Maddie working from her lift bucket
Maddie with Jeff
I first read about charming Maddie Deiters in an issue of The Epoch Times. If you’re not reading The Epoch Times newspaper, you’re missing out on some wonderful human-interest stories. At the intrepid age of 14, Maddie has made a name for herself painting huge murals on the sides of buildings in her hometown of Marion, Illinois. Her paintings narrate emotional stories of industry, service, patriotism and sacrifice. Because Cindy and I found Maddie’s story so refreshing and inspiring, we had to see those beautiful works of art with our own eyes! Marion (pop. 17,500) is 400 miles north-northeast of The River Region and 319 miles south of Chicago. Our route took us through Birmingham, Nashville, Clarksville and Paducah. Watch out for frequent and horrendous potholes on I-24. Taking a more westerly route after Birmingham extends travel time but the roads are better. But once you arrive, expect to find some of the friendliest people on the planet, lots of history, a unique town square in the process of being reimagined, and buildings explod-
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Maddie's Coal Miner's Mural
she took on the project and sort of put together a package where we did it in two phases.” The City of Marion tried to get a National Endowment for the Arts grant, but the effort failed so they ended up using local money to get started.
Maddie's Eagle
ing with art. It’s worth the drive. Mayor Michael Absher liked the idea of creating murals. “The way that whole mural program started—and we didn’t invent the idea, there are a lot of small towns doing murals—and so, when I got elected in 2019 and wanted to do it, I ended up hiring somebody. And
“We advertised nationally, really, for art concepts. Proposals came in from Europe, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Austin. Each owner/occupier of a specific building had a say in picking out what motif they wanted. The city had veto power to make sure something inappropriate didn’t go up. Artists could bid on just a concept they had sketched out and get a monetary award for that; and then they had the option to paint it (themselves) or not. So, Maddie submitted several concepts for different buildings and ultimately was awarded (the coal miners) one. I don’t know that anyone ended up not painting their own. We didn’t know, at that stage, how that would work. There’re a lot of talented people that can sketch something out but may not want to do a
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