Following the March 23, 2022, fireplace on the Thatcher Group Inc. plant on Route 104 in Williamson, demolition work uncovered a mural hidden behind an inside wall, signed and dated in 1974.
The mural, unknown to the current homeowners, got here as fairly a shock. Thatcher Facility Upkeep Supervisor Mike Keller wished to search out the artist and protect this historic paintings. Keller contacted Williamson Code Enforcement Officer Duane Smeatin, who in flip reached out to Marion City Historian Caryn Devlin. Seneca Meals had beforehand owned the constructing and its headquarters are in Marion. Smeatin thought Devlin could be . After viewing the mural herself, Devlin contacted Wayne County Bicentennial Co-Chair Gene Bavis who acquired in contact with Jean Bell, asking if she had ever painted a mural for Thatcher or Seneca Meals.
Bingo! Bell certainly was the artist of this mural titled “Apple Harvest.”
In 1974, Jim Howard of Ontario –plant supervisor for Seneca Meals, which processed applesauce — requested Bell to color “one thing with apples” on a wall of their workplace space. She agreed and integrated such applicable historic particulars like the best way the branches had been pruned for hand-picking, a three-legged ladder used to get near a tree and a picker’s canvas shoulder bag. The bag, contoured to the physique, has a drawstring on the backside to launch the apples. On the particular request of Howard’s secretary, Bell painted a squirrel at ground degree.
The illustrative model 9-by-26-foot-wide mural is duotone. Duotone was a well-liked approach for illustration in print, and it suited the venture’s finances and time-frame. Portray the mural took about two weeks. In some unspecified time in the future it was lined by an inside wall and by luck — albeit by means of a damaging occasion — the mural was found.
So, what’s to develop into of this historic native paintings? How will it’s restored and preserved for future generations to take pleasure in?
A shed roof might be constructed over the realm to maintain the mural shielded from climate, because the mural wall might be a part of an out of doors break house for Thatcher workers. At Thatcher’s request, Bell can have a major position within the restoration of “Apple Harvest.” Potential therapies and enhancements for the mural had been mentioned throughout a gathering with Bell, Bavis, Thatcher representatives Keller and Plant Supervisor Fabian Taylor, and Mark DeCracker. DeCracker, a promoter and muralist for a company referred to as Mural Mania, is liable for many of the out of doors public murals throughout Wayne County. Mural Mania artists will supply their abilities and experience within the restoration of “Apple Harvest.”
New up to date content material might be launched and supply a setting for the unique mural. The left will function fashionable apple timber, pruned and skilled to develop on fences, and discipline crops in full shade. The suitable will function a dairy scene. The themes are consistent with Thatcher’s assist of agriculture and dairy farming.
Life = artwork
Muralist Jean Bell’s life resides artwork. Freelancing for rent and volunteer work, Bell has been concerned within the native artwork world by means of quite a few undertakings comparable to group theater stage and costume design; working with college students in stage design; historic portray depicting household histories; photograph slide exhibits for former Ontario City Historian Virginia Scully; illustrating finish papers in two Ontario historical past books; and rather more.
Earlier than acquiring a communications diploma and dealing at Xerox Company, Bell intensely studied shade science. A Xerox supervisor requested her to color an “fascinating image” of a Nineteen Seventies shade copier as a result of in any other case, he stated, it “seemed like a washer.”
“I imagined it with three coloured mild sources and made the overlapping shadows comply with the principles of shade mixing,” Bell recalled.
A decade later, as a technical author, coach and high quality supervisor for Xerox, Bell’s artwork expertise with shade mixing turned helpful, as she wrote the colour modules for service, gross sales and buyer coaching on the brand new shade copier. Bell retired from Xerox in 1999.
Household collaborations are essential. In 2016, Bell and her husband George, a wooden carver, mentored an Eagle Scout candidate whose venture resulted in two transportable murals for St. Mary’s Church in Ontario. She has labored along with her daughter, Linda, on artwork and communication initiatives; along with her son, Greg, on stage design and set constructing at his kids’s college, and with son, David, on 3-D murals for his dwelling. Now, with George as researcher and Jean as writer, the couple produce household histories by means of their publishing enterprise “Wayne & Ridge Publishing.”
From household initiatives and historic work to giant scale murals for native companies, Bell is a powerhouse of creative power.
Regardless of the unlucky fireplace Thatcher this previous spring, nice collaborations have advanced. The Wayne County Bicentennial Committee is so happy Bell’s hidden 1974 mural for Seneca Meals was found. This distinctive historic uncovering has led to a partnership between the Bicentennial Committee, Mural Mania, Thatcher Firm and Jean Bell to create a monumental mural commemorating Wayne County’s historical past.
Come test it out! Wayne County IS historic to the core!
Fox is the Huron city historian and Bell is longtime Wayne County resident and native artist.




































