“Everybody Is Happy At The Market”: The Making of the West TN Farmers’ Market Mural

Written by Truman Forehand

Photos by Maddie McMurry and Courtney Searcy

“I think a lot of artists overdo things or overthink it,” Katie Howerton, local artist and one half of the winning team for the inaugural Design Dash event, said. “And with Design Dash, it was like, hey, get it done in 24 hours and we will show it in person. I don't have to send emails and stuff. I can just try to pitch it as is.”

Our conversation wound itself through the ins and outs of creating public art while Howerton and her fellow artist and Design Dash partner Hilary Griffith were hard at work installing a new mural at the West TN Farmers’ Market. They were drawn to the project for similar reasons, but fill different roles. Howerton stood atop an electric lift, elevated up the side of a brick wall at the Farmers’ Market, hand painting giant lettering onto the brick. Griffith stood below, on a tarp, adding the finishing touches to the colorful characters who would populate the wall beneath the text. 

“I would say for me it was definitely intimidating. I'm already a person that– I'm scared for people to see my process or see anything that's not finished,” Griffith said. “And so when you're making public art, obviously there's a lot of people that see the process of it, but people have been so encouraging and thanking us for doing this for the city.” 

Over the course of our conversation, as Griffith opened a new can of paint and Howerton moved the lift to focus on a different letter, these themes emerged. And they were in agreement. Katie Howerton and Hilary Griffith seek to use their art to foster community despite division and create something beautiful within the boundaries of constraints. 

Though both are lifelong artists who learned together as students in Union University’s art program and have worked across multiple mediums, both physical and digital, neither Howerton nor Griffith considers themselves first and foremost painters or muralists (Howerton has worked on one mural before; this is Griffith’s first rodeo).

Much is made of creativity as a sort of boundless power, the ability to look at a blank canvas and see potential begging to be realized. In reality, artists may rarely be given a blank canvas. They work within constraints, a truth agreed upon by Howerton and Griffith.

“This is harder than we expected, in certain ways,” Howerton said. “We can't just, if we mess up,  paint over it in the background color or whatever.”

This project is not a blank canvas, but rather a brick wall, one with cords running up and down its surface and windows interrupting the planes across which the artists paint their pictures. Boundaries are built-in — creativity lies not in filling emptiness but in working around obstacles. 

“I don't know that we underestimated the physical strength, like for example, I have a lot of blisters on my hand and my feet, my legs are hurting.” Griffith said.  

Over time, the creation of downtown Jackson’s newest work of public art became not only about the physical constraints and opportunities presented by the ‘canvas’ upon which the work would be presented, but about the work itself. Nearly an entire week was lost to rain and thunder and intermittent tornado warnings. The mural could not be completed to the soundtrack of storm sirens. Work stopped. Through this, though, the two artists leaned on one another. 

“I feel like Hillary and I kind of balance each other out,” Howerton said. “Like we keep joking every time one of us really doesn't want to do this, the other one's like, I'm excited. And it just keeps going back and forth.”

That support manifests in the project but also in the way they toss the conversational ball back and forth to one another. 

“We are much quicker to advocate for the other person than we are for ourselves,” Howerton said. 

“It’s been good for our anxiety!” Griffith said.

“Anxiety Girls! But yeah, we were talking about it. I don't think we've ever done a project together, which is hilarious.”

“Glad it didn’t break up our friendship!” 

“But Hillary's been really great. And also, we talk it out together. And there have been a couple times that we've gotten sick this week. And the other person's just like, take a rest.”

“I’m the sous chef to her chef,” Griffith finished. 

Because they hadn’t partnered on a project before, Design Dash seemed like a new opportunity to work with a friend while creating something for the community. They both jumped at the chance. 

Standing and looking up at the nearly-complete work, their vision was being realized. A cast of colorful characters walked, ran, shopped, and leaned across the brick wall and against the windows. These characters recreated the energy of a morning at the market. In huge, curvy letters, above this scene were the words “That Saturday Feeling.” 

“The Saturday feeling, because we both just had this shared experience of every Saturday we're going to the market and where it's just the sun is shining. It's just a vibe. It's just like one of the happiest days,” Griffith said. 

That ultimate vision, of recreating their own sunny mornings at the market with their families’, produced the plan for the final artwork. 

“We kept imagining scenes of the Saturday market,” Howerton said. “So I kind of just told Hillary, ‘I love the way you draw people. I want you to draw people at the market, like the things they do.’ And so she kind of sketched and then we started laying them out in a way that made sense with this girl, like her leaning against the window, or her propped up on that wire, you know, because there's weird things to work around. And so that ended up being helpful. So it wasn't just a blob of people.”

The ultimate work is an expression of pride in the community the artists call home. Fruits, vegetables, and donuts dot the lettering and peak from the bags of the Jacksonites depicted across the expanse of brick. 

“Working here this morning is really special because like I could hear all the sounds, just catch the energy a little bit while I was working,” Howerton said. “We have probably the best farmers’ market in the state, you know people are always bragging on it and that's really cool. That's just fun that we're not having to project kind of an imaginary scene. This is actually the vibe that people have here.”

“Everybody is just happy at the market,” Griffith said. 

Katie climbed down off the lift and brushed her hands on her painter’s coveralls. Hilary put the brush down just to take a quick break. In that little in-between moment, as they stopped working for a moment and I prepared to turn off the recorder and say goodbye, they laughed together about their work. What it meant to them, what they hoped it would mean to everybody else. Katie looked at the characters Hilary had been painting. 

“Oh my gosh, he's so cute. Is Tim like the only boy that has red hair?” (Note: They have named each of the characters on the wall.)

“Yeah. It's Tim.” 

“Maybe that's Tim's baby.” Katie pointed at another figure on the wall. “Anyway, sorry. Creating the lore behind these characters,” she said.

“People do keep asking us, like, ‘who are they?’” Hilary said. “Who are these people? I'm like I don't know. Whoever you want. Follow your heart.”