MILWAUKEE — One day after the Bucks' historic win, the huge crowds have cleared out of the Deer District; the fireworks have fizzled out. But across the city, walls and alleys and stairwells are still repping the green and white.
Milwaukee is home to plenty of Bucks-inspired murals where you can celebrate the big win by snagging some photos (or just basking in the glow of a giant Giannis).
Here, we talk to some local artists about the inspiration behind their larger-than-life Bucks paintings — and give you the details on where to check out murals across town.
Location: 2377 N. Holton Ave.
Artist: Tia Richardson
Bucks fans are enjoying the sweet taste of victory this week. But in Milwaukee’s Black community, that taste goes beyond a championship win, artist Tia Richardson said.
“We create sweetness for ourselves in life,” Richardson said.
The community muralist is finishing up a new piece, which is part of the “Art of Flavor” project created by the Bucks and Jack Daniel’s to highlight different parts of Milwaukee culture. The project's four murals include one from former Bucks player and current artist Desmond Mason.
Richardson’s assignment was to showcase the “heart and soul” of the Black experience in Milwaukee, while drawing inspiration from the flavors of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey.
As Richardson explained, “We are a diverse community. We're not a monolith.” So she wanted to weave a range of experiences into the common thread of Black Milwaukee.
Basketball is part of that, from the championship Bucks to the pickup games in parks across the city. So are music, fashion, dancing and poetry, all of which helped inspire Richardson’s vibrant design.
The mural also captures some of Milwaukee’s history, with a scene highlighting the city’s past as a hub for Black industrial workers. Richardson said she looked through photo archives and talked to local Black historians to gain some perspective.
“Despite the ups and downs in the history of our city for Black people,” Richardson said, “there’s been a persistent and consistent way that we express creativity, and a way that we find to enjoy life.”
The artist said she’s been excited to create art for the Bucks on the project, since they’re an organization that is very focused on supporting the community.
In her own work across Milwaukee, Richardson is all about bringing communities together. Through her collaborative art — like her Sherman Park mural, which brought together more than 150 people to help design and paint — she said she’s realized that art is about much more than the finished product.
“It's just about sharing together,” Richardson said. “Everyone being able to offer their different perspectives and see it as part of something bigger — see ourselves as part of something bigger.”
Location: 3600 S. Clement Ave.
Artist: Fred Kaems
Muralist Fred Kaems thinks art should be able to brighten anyone’s day.
To make that happen, he’s spent many years “painting on stuff that doesn’t belong to me,” he said.
“My hope with any mural is to put a smile on somebody's face,” Kaems said. “One of the reasons I like public art and murals so much is because you don't have to pay a ticket for admission.”
When Kaems was hired to paint one of his murals in 2018, he was given a lot of freedom to decide what to paint. He figured he wanted to highlight something about the Milwaukee community, and went with a local rising star: Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Back then, Giannis wasn’t yet the “superstar” he is today, Kaems said. But Milwaukee was catching on.
“We were really realizing that there was something special about him and what he was doing for the city,” Kaems said.
The mural features Giannis in action over a colorful background. Kaems said he liked the color purple for the mural because it represents royalty, and also gives a throwback to the former Bucks uniforms. The swoop of blue across the wall evokes the waters of the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan.
At the time, Kaems said he’d never done a portrait of that size before, so capturing Giannis’ features at that scale was the biggest challenge for the project.
The mural might be getting an update soon — so if you want to catch it in its current form, now’s the time. Meanwhile, Kaems said he’s been excited to cheer on the Bucks and see Giannis get his moment.
“It’s nice to see that he’s come here and built something for our city, but more importantly that he’s brought the energy,” Kaems said. “Because of what he’s done for the city, as a Milwaukeean, how could you not be proud of that?”
Location: COA Youth & Family Riverwest Center
Artist: Rozalia Singh
When it came time to bring some new color to the walls of COA Youth & Family’s Riverwest Center, one very important group got to call the shots: The students.
Artist Rozalia Singh and the COA team asked the young people who attended the center what they wanted to see. And what they wanted to see was sports.
“We came up with the suggestion of, why not do it based off of some legends, some players?” Singh said.
It was Signh’s husband who suggested including Giannis as part of the mural, which also pays tribute to players from the Packers and the Brewers. Before painting him, the artist admits, she didn’t know much of anything about the finals MVP.
“I feel slightly embarrassed,” Singh said. “At that time, I did not know who he was.”
But she studied up on him to work on the mural. And since then, she and her family have gone all-in on rooting for the Bucks, Singh said.
The mural places the players on a striped field in front of the Milwaukee skyline. One interesting feature is that the painting — which is placed in one of the building’s stairwells — looks different depending on what angle you’re standing at, Singh said.
And the artist didn’t work alone to create the mural. Some COA students volunteered to help with the painting, which Singh said was a great way to get to know them — from the girl who kept referring to Giannis as her “boyfriend,” to another who was absorbed “in her own world” while carefully painting.
Singh, who comes from a family of artists — her father is the iconic Milwaukee muralist Reynaldo Hernandez — said those connections are a big piece of the process.
“It is definitely part of the whole experience,” Singh said. “Especially when you get to work with the community, it makes it something unforgettable.”
Some other murals to check out around the city:
Location: 327 W. National Ave.
Artist: Shawn Dekay
Location: 2322 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
Artist: Ruben Alcantar; designer: Jeff Redmon