The mural Koda Witsken is most proud of is the one that isn’t painted yet.
“Always, it’s the next one,” says Witsken, an Indiana-based muralist whose clients include an impressive roundup of the state’s who’s-who list.
Witsken studied art at Purdue University and Duke University before navigating a career in corporate sales in the travel industry. Though she still loves travel and tourism, Witsken found her true calling rooted in the arts and opened her own mural business, now known as Hue Murals. The business completes mural and art installation projects nationally, with projects in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, New York, California and more.
“My first mural, believe it or not, was a three-story mural that I completed for an energy company in Vincennes, Indiana, when I was 20 years old,” Witsken says. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was in college, driving to Vincennes from Purdue on the weekends, learning how to paint, how to use a lift, what paint to use.”
Witsken says her style has completely changed since that project 10 years ago, and she typically uses spray paint for most of her work, instead of hand painting. “My style has gotten more dynamic and expressive as my career options have grown into projects that allow for more creative freedom and thought leadership,” she says.
Locally, Witsken just finished a mural installation in Sharpsville.
“The Sharpsville town council, along with community partners, selected me from a list of artists provided by the Arts Federation because they liked my bright color palette and vibrant, positive artistic style,” she says.
Being selected as the artist is just the beginning of the design process, which requires multiple strategy sessions and meetings to help in understanding the community.
“I met with those stakeholders before
designing the mural to learn from them - what did Sharpsville want the mural to be? How can we best represent the town and enrich the arts landscape of Sharpsville? What local symbols, motifs, colors or stories would locals want to incorporate?” Witsken says.
Witsken drew inspiration and ideas from the town members’ feedback and began to see their vision come to life.
“From this meeting, it was clear that Sharpsville stakeholders wanted a bright, playful mural that invited newcomers and residents alike to visit the community park, and that celebrated the rural culture of the town,” she says.
Witsken’s favorite part of the community feedback is the story of Bessie Bopdrop, the famed local cow that roamed the park for community fundraisers and is now the center of the Sharpsville mural. There are also nods to local farming, produce, pollinators and more.
“We ultimately went through a few variations of the design, incorporating community feedback, before the final design was fully approved by the town council, the State of Indiana via Visit Indiana as they were a main funder, the Arts Federation and other groups,” Witsken says.
Other Indiana-based projects include murals or installations for the Pacers, Colts, NCAA, Eli Lilly, Bottleworks District, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and Harley-Davidson, among others.
“My projects have increasingly focused on community engagement, which I prize immensely,” Witsken says.
You can learn more about Hue Murals by emailing koda@huemuralsbykoda.com, visiting huemuralsbykoda.com, checking out @huemurals on Instagram, or calling 317-517-4144.
There’s not a whole lot that Brett Morrow doesn’t do. A man of many talents, he’s an accountant, flight attendant, entrepreneur, home and commercial building renovator, restaurant owner, and market owner. One of his recent business endeavors involves opening a gourmet market and grocery store in Tipton.
Tipton, famous for its annual pork festival, lost its meat market a year ago, so Morrow stepped in to fill that void by opening The Market on Main last August. Located inside the old PNC bank, the 5,000-square-foot
facility is not a convenience store.
“I can’t compete on bread, milk, eggs or Oreos because I don’t have the buying volume,” Morrow says. “Where I can compete is on the meat side. We don’t buy our meat already cut. We cut and grind everything - ground beef, pork chops, steaks. More importantly, you’re not going to pick a rib eye off a piece of styrofoam that’s Saran-wrapped. We cut it for you right there. That’s the beauty of a small-town butcher.”
Their staff is also helpful in offering advice on how to cook certain meats, as well as tips on rubs for flavoring the meats. For instance,
if you like a well-done fillet, it might not be a good idea to buy an inch-and-a-half fillet because by the time the center is well-done, it’ll likely be like leather on the outside.
“We want people to be successful so we try to educate them,” Morrow says. “We’re good about talking to the customers and building that rapport.”
When it comes to running a successful business, Morrow says it’s all about treating people with respect and paying them what they are worth. Morrow follows the advice of Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines, who knew that by taking care of employees, they would, in turn, take good
care of the passengers.
“When I bought the building I didn’t know how to run a grocery store, but I could keep the books,” Morrow says. “I’m smart enough to hire people who are better at it than I am.”
Morrow bought the building and transformed it into The Market on Main to help revitalize the town. It’s the same reason he purchased the defunct Pizza Shack, which he plans to reopen as The Shack.
“The goal is to keep the money in Tipton,” he says. “If you give people a place to shop and a place to eat, all of a sudden the local coffee shop, gas station and movie theater are doing better. We want to give people a reason to stay in town.”
Between The Market on Main and The Shack, Morrow has helped to change the economic feasibility of Tipton within six months.
“The old saying, ‘Build it and they will come,’ is true,” he says.
The Market on Main also features a bistro with 18 seats including a bar area, two four-tops and a couple of leather chairs. Customers can get a coffee or a deli sandwich (again, with all fresh-cut meat). They also sell bone-in fried chicken, chicken tenders, fried mushrooms and fresh tenderloins.
“We’ve got free Wi-Fi and phone chargers all over so it’s kind of like a Starbucks lounge,” Morrow says. “You can come in, have your coffee or lunch, get on your laptop, check your email. There’s no place in town to do that.”
Morrow loves having his hands in various ventures. Working as a flight attendant enables him to get away while multitasking.
“I’m taking care of passengers but I’m also reflecting on getting my to-do list in order,”
he says. “It’s my ‘me’ time, and nobody is tapping me on the shoulder, calling me or sending me emails. They can’t when I’m at 30,000 feet.”
While Morrow notes that the community is champing at the bit for him to open The Shack, they have also been understanding as to why it hasn’t happened quite yet.
“When they saw The Market and the quality of the product we’re providing, they were grateful,” Morrow says. “In this community people know if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. People miss their pizza, but the community has been extremely kind and supportive. They’ve thanked me for coming to town and asked me how they can help. They’ve been awesome.”
The Market on Main is located at 102 North Main Street in Tipton. For more info, call 765-408-0146 or visit tiptonmarket.com.
The missing numbers are integers between 0 and 5.
The numbers in each row add up to totals to the right. The numbers in each column add up to the totals along the bottom. The diagonal lines also add up the totals to the right.
