Artist excited about biggest work yet on downtown La Crosse wall

Annie Morris hopes her latest work sparks more wall painting.

Morris is the artist commissioned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting to paint a vibrant and colorful mural on the north wall of the company’s otherwise drab building on the corner of 2nd and State streets in downtown La Crosse.

The painting, on the roughly 1,500-square-foot surface, started this week. Her biggest project. By far. But, Morris says, something that boils down to math.

“I created a sketch, and its to scale,” she said. “So, now I just have to go about the business of making that sketch happen on this larger space. I’m extremely nervous.”

Morris will involve children in helping to paint her abstract work.

She said the mural space would fit all of the rest of her paintings combined.

But, she’s committed to the vast mural commissioned by the radio group and hopes it has a “gigantic visual impact that’s recognizable from a far distance,” she said. “I want to engage the community with something very bold and bright.”

Morris wants to generate enthusiasm for getting similar wall art inside — and maybe on the outside — of schools.

“If I could just be part of this snowball effect in any way, that’s just absolutely the most beautiful thing I could think of,” she said.

Morris sketches of the mural are, essentially, a black wall with a white, flowing outline of a woman’s face and hand — and lots and lots of color painted on in a random kaleidoscope of chromatic movement.

If all goes well, the mural could be done in a week.