So she’s constructing a new seating area on the back side of her Wilson’s Lasting Expressions Flower Shop on the corner of 3rd and Washington avenues, and she tapped Alpena Community College art student Samantha Freske, of Posen, to paint two murals on her building.

On the 3rd Avenue side, Freske painted a mural of butterflies and Wilson installed a butterfly-shaped topiary alongside it. On the Washington Avenue side, Freske painted large butterfly wings designed so people can take their photo in front of the mural to make it appear as if they have wings.

“It’s a space sitting idle, but, with a little bit of effort, it can be a space that anybody can enjoy,” Wilson said this week at the flower shop. “Adding little flourishes lets the building be noticed again.”

Wilson was inspired in part by the Alpena Downtown Development Authority’s Fresh Waves mural project, which has since 2019 installed 23 murals across downtown Alpena, including six new murals this year on the sides of Noise and Toys, Harborside Cycle, Hopside Brewery, and Rusty Petunias, and on two city power boxes downtown.

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The Fresh Waves murals have been joined by numerous other murals around town painted outside of the DDA’s program: on Lasting Expressions, on Shalla’s Market, on Hungry Hippie’s State Avenue location, on the Besser Co. headquarters, and on the side of the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

“That’s very exciting to see,” said DDA Executive Director Anne Gentry. “That’s always been kind of our hope is that other groups of people would see, like, ‘Oh, Alpena can become a destination for these murals. Maybe we can invest in them, as well.'”

Early every year, the DDA opens applications for businesses seeking murals on their facades and for artists seeking to paint. The selected businesses get final approval on the mural designs. The DDA covers the cost of the artist’s travel, lodging, and supplies.

The DDA typically budgets $5,000 per mural but this year received more than $14,000 from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council and the DDA matched that investment.

That extra investment helped the DDA install more full-scale murals this year than any year since the inception of Fresh Waves.

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In 2019, the first year, Aaron Golbeck and Chad Bolsinger painted a large mural on the side of Family Enterprises on 2nd Avenue. In 2020, Mark Piotrowski painted a mural on the side of Salon 125 on Chisholm Street and Britt Flood painted the side of the Thunder Bay Theatre warehouse on Fletcher Street. The following year, multiple artists — Danyeal Dorr, Hope Reed, Mariah Brancheau, Freske, Sarah Bedford, Tiffany Tracey, and Angelina Villalobos — painted 12 small-scale murals on freestanding structures at the Alpena boat harbor. In 2022, Kayla Peake painted a full-scale mural at the boat harbor and artist Tim Nijenhuis painted a mural on the side of the Light of Hope Clubhouse on 3rd.

This year, Sous La Ciel, of Ann Arbor, painted a mural on the side of Harborisde Cycle with support from the Sunset Project. Nijenhuis, of Ontario, returned to paint a mural on the side of Hopside Brewery. Steffi Tsai, of New York City, painted the back side of Rusty Petunias. Michael Ferrarell, of Chicago, painted the side of Noise and Toys. And Brancheau, of Lachine, painted two city power boxes downtown.

Gentry said Fresh Waves is good for the artists, giving them exposure and a chance to create. It’s good for the businesses, drawing attention to them. And she said it’s good for the community.

“It shows that things are happening,” Gentry said. “When people see that, like, ‘Wow, someone is investing here. Someone is taking the time to paint artwork, to invest in our downtown,’ it shows that this is a place that should be invested in and is important.”

The DDA currently awaits final approval from the Alpena Municipal Council for an expansion of the DDA district boundaries from the core downtown area to farther along Chisholm Street. Gentry said her hope is that, next year, Fresh Waves can install murals along the expanded corridor.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A mural painted by Sous La Ciel, of Ann Arbor, is seen earlier this week on the side of Harborside Cycle in downtown Alpena.

There may come a time when the city has too many murals, Gentry said, but the city isn’t near that point, yet.

“We still are getting a lot of interest from property owners,” she said. “I think we’ll continue it as long as we have interest.”

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A mural of various symbols of Alpena painted by Michael Ferrarell, of Chicago, is seen earlier this week on the side of Noise and Toys in downtown Alpena.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A butterfly mural and an accompanying butterfly topiary is seen earlier this week on the side of Wilson’s Lasting Expressions Flower Shop on the corner of 3rd and Washington avenues.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A mural of butterfly wings — designed so people can take their picture in front of it and make it appear as if they have wings — is seen earlier this week on the side of Wilson’s Lasting Expressions Flower Shop on the corner of 3rd and Washington avenues.