ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Over the course of the past months, wintery scenes have popped up across the windows of downtown Ann Arbor businesses.
Painted in high-quality acrylics, the snowy scenes and cozy critters add a whimsical touch to Tree Town.
But these window paintings don’t come out of thin air. They’re painted by the Brush Monkeys, a collective of professional Washtenaw County-based artists.
The uniqueness paintings and illustrations come from the myriad of styles each Brush Monkeys artist brings to the group-- from illustrative to decorative -- and scenes are painted in collaboration with business owners.
Currently organized by Mary Thiefels of Tree Town Murals, the artists meet up throughout November and December to paint their creations and commissions around the city.
“And we just have a blast! We meet at Avalon typically every morning. We have coffee and I’ll dictate the schedule and put artist teams together that complement each other,” said Thiefels.
She said that the collective has three kits that they take with them as they paint. “And, if we have a good crew -- like six to eight artists -- we’ll be able to paint three to five, sometimes six, businesses in one day.”
Thiefels said there is a growing demand for window painting. In 2017 the collective painted 136-holiday paintings. This year, the Brush Monkeys will paint between 150 to 160 windows by the end of the winter painting season.
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Thiefels said the camaraderie between the artists is something that makes them love what they do, and that the micro-community absorbs new artists into its collective every year -- like the three artists-in-training working with the Brush Monkeys now.
Currently, the Brush Monkeys consist of Mary Thiefels, Danijel Matanic, John Copley, Narooz Soliman, Lavinia Hanachiuc, Lauren Friedman, Colin Wilson, Brein Harpster, Sam Brown, IO Soucy, Armine Verdiyan, Sajeev Visweswaran, David Zinn and Karl Burdak.
Out of all of the window paintings, Thiefels said that her favorite pieces to paint have been those that wrap around buildings or the bright blue llamas at Blue Llama Jazz Club, painted by Danijel Matanic.
According to Thiefels, the temporary paintings can last for months depending upon the weather. Look for an interactive map of the window paintings through the Brush Monkeys website.
Formerly the Novemberistas, the group rebranded in 2018 when it decided to continue its window painting into other seasons. While the collective started to form around 2003 by John Copley, there has been a long history of window paintings
The Brush Monkeys don’t just paint around Ann Arbor, look for their work in Ypsilanti, Midland and Saline as well.