Emily Roberts of Macomb said she was inspired by the community’s mural of civil rights leader the Reverend C.T. Vivian, which was unveiled last summer.
“When I saw the C.T. Vivian mural, I loved it and I thought, ‘I want to do something in town.’ I wanted to do something that had a message for the community and for anybody that saw this mural,” Roberts said.
She is creating an 8-foot by 32-foot mural that will read “Be Kind to All.” But instead of paint, this mural will be made of bottle caps – an estimated 30,000 of them that are being diverted from landfills.
Roberts said she got “carloads” of bottle caps from the recycling center, but is still in need of more, especially yellow, brown, pink, purple, and gray caps.
The caps will be glued and screwed into place on boards, and then covered with a varnish to prevent fading.
Roberts is a retired counselor, not a professional artist, and admits that at times during the project she’s questioned her sanity.
“I thought about giving up because people started wondering if the bottle caps would fade, and I did not know what to do about that. And I was thinking about how to get them to stay on, and to realize that each one had to be screwed on is a pretty monumental task,” Roberts said.
But she had already bought the boards, and had thousands of bottle caps in her garage, so she consulted with artists in the community to learn how to tackle some of those challenges. She said Kelley Quinn, Bill Howard, and Jan Rockwell, and Dean Rockwell are among the artists who shared advice.
Roberts estimated it will cost $7,500 to create and install the piece. She is seeking financial donations, which can be made through the Macomb Area Community Foundation.
She is also seeking help to make the mural, which she is working on at the Western Illinois University Physical Plant. For more information, contact Emily Roberts at rbrts_fam@yahoo.com
The mural will be installed on the west side of building at 113 E. Carroll St., just down the street from the Vivian mural.
“I drove around and around and around and looked at buildings, and I saw that spot and thought, ‘That would be an awesome spot.’ So I contacted the owner, George Hartmann, and asked him about it and he said yes,” she said.
She hopes to install the mural before the weather turns cold in the fall.
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