Wilkinson Brothers Complete Downtown Mural
Writer / Julie Yates
Photographer / Justin Sicking
This spring a vibrant new landmark appeared in downtown Fishers. Located on the wall of a renovated building at 8684 East 116th Street, the eye-catching mural is 24’x30’. Its retro postcard sensibility announces “Greetings From Fishers” as it embraces the community’s past, while being part of the new mixed-use development, Nickel Plate Station.
Corey Wilkinson and his twin brother, Casey Wilkinson, owners of Wilkinson Brothers, a graphic design and illustration studio, designed and hand-painted the massive illustration. In the summer of 2022 the Fishers Arts & Culture Commission, along with the City of Fishers, put out the call for artists or creative companies who had the qualifications to complete a mural project. The goal for the finished project was street art that was colorful and Instagram-able, and conveyed a sense of place.
“We threw our hat into the ring,” says Corey Wilkinson, a Fishers resident since 2003. “Right away we made sketches, mock-ups and color renderings on the computer. We wanted to give homage to the community, not just generate random artwork. The Reid family funded the project. Christopher Reid is the CEO of CRG Residential, which, in a public-private partnership between the City of Fishers and Browning, is developing Nickel Plate Station. From start to finish, we worked around the weather and the project took around four weeks to complete. The first thing we did after the boom lift was dropped off was to paint a white square that acted as a blank piece of paper. Later, the white was a good base for the bright colors to stick to.”
The building on which the mural is painted was built in 1913, and is one of two historic structures under renovation by CRG Residential. It was originally a bank, complete with a vault, and even housed several restaurants during its existence. Next to it, the second building saved was built in 1886. Significant repairs were made to both the foundations and brickwork. Retail space will be constructed on the first floors with residential housing above it.
“We worked with the Department of Public Works to have four streetlights turned off one night so we could project the image on the wall to a very large scale,” Wilkinson says. “I took a graphite pencil over the lines of the projection. It took two or three hours and when it was daylight, we could see the lines. Later, as we filled them in with paint, we had several prints in front of us to reference color and design.”
Due to its size, drivers have a good view of the mural while traveling east, but pedestrians enjoying walkable downtown Fishers can get a full appreciation. The colorful montage has images that reflect the city’s past and present. The flowing blue water suggests the fork in the White River, where settler William Conner built his cabin – the site of Conner Prairie living history museum today. Another reference to the museum is the hot-air balloon, while the blue heron painted by the water is a nod to Geist.
It’s appropriate that since the mural is nestled in Nickel Plate Station, one of its features is a train. It has two dates on either side. On the left is 1872, the year Salathiel Fisher platted the town, then known as Fisher’s Switch or Fishers Station. On the right, 2015 is the year the Town of Fishers became a city.
The stamp in the top right states “Mudsock,” the nickname for Fishers. The horse in the center represents the buggy days, and the face of Salathiel Fisher can be seen at the bottom. It too carries the year 1872, but also 1908, when the post office dropped the word “Switch” and the apostrophe, to make the name of the town Fishers.
“We are already missing the people we saw when working on the project,” Wilkinson says. “People would honk and give us the thumbs-up sign, and we’d stop to pet dogs being walked. It was great to get away from the computer, get outside and paint with a brush. Because of the old rough brick, we had to pull and push the paint in. We got the paint at the local Sherwin-Williams Paint Store on Fishers Crossing Drive.”
“We are thankful to the City of Fishers for the chance to paint the mural, and to the Reid family for funding it,” he adds. “Chris Reid wanted to make sure kids and adults had something to see commemorating the development of the Nickel Plate District. We would love to do more murals in the future and hope this project leads other local municipalities do the same.”
The mural is located at 8684 East 116th Street in Fishers. For more information on Wilkinson Brothers graphic design and illustration studio, visit wilkinsonbrothers.com.
