Rutland Artist Kathryn Wiegers Paints the Town in Vermont
June 23, 2020

Artist Kathryn Wiegers is brightening up Vermont’s downtowns with her giant, vibrant murals.

If you stroll along the streets of downtown Rutland, you’ll come across her murals of elephants, giraffes, and even Batman. On Route 7 outside the Chaffee Art Center is one of Wiegers’ latest pieces: a take on Rosie the Riveter as a COVID-19 essential worker.

In Burlington, her colorful flower mural can be seen at Green State Gardener on Pine Street, while two new murals she’s creating will soon be installed at the Hilton Hotel and the UVM Medical Center.

The public nature of mural art is rewarding and challenging, Wiegers says, adding there’s a sense of community ownership with murals.

“Everyone comes to art with a different experience, and everyone takes something different away from it,” she says. “No matter what, someone’s not going to like (a mural). But you can’t make everyone happy. That’s kind of the fun part about art—we all look at it differently.”

Wiegers was raised in Maryland and attended Castleton State College to study natural science. She and her husband live in Rutland with their five children.

Happy Vermont Podcast: An Interview with Kathryn Wiegers

In this episode of Happy Vermont, Kathryn Wiegers talks about what inspires her as an artist, the challenges and rewards of creating murals in public places, and why she loves Vermont.

You can find this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.

You can learn more about Kathryn Wiegers’ work at www.kathrynwiegers.com.

As always, thanks for listening. Please email ideas, comments or feedback to [email protected].

-Main photo courtesy of Kathryn Wiegers

Special thanks to Pluck for podcast editing and post-production.