Keith Wilde is a well-known freelance artist in Athens. Even if someone doesn’t know him, they know his work. They know the cats and butterflies painted on a garage door adjacent to Jager Funeral Home, frogs climbing on barred windows-turned-lanterns at Depot Street Lift Station and fish metamorphosing into dragons at Level 42.
His passion was clear from the start, straight from his hometown of Norwich, Ohio. Wilde’s business started as Wilde Manifestations LLC because creating a business front gave him more legal protection. Now, he prefers to present himself to his clients not just as a business owner, but as a human.
With every new mural, he starts by scouting the space and approaching it as a passerby would. He thinks about how the painting would interact with the space and what the point of view and the composition should be. Then he interviews the client.
“I love interviewing the folks and hearing about their ideas and inspiration,” he said. “I get to discover this rich inner life that people have.”
Wilde turns their interests, ideals and ideas into visuals to be interpreted by everyone. They write back and forth until he asks them to approve a final sketch. Wilde finds his inspiration by visiting other cities and scouring their back allies for art.
“I get to grow as an artist every day … I take a lot of pleasure in seeing myself do things that I didn’t know I had in me,” he said.
One idea that he had been looking for opportunities to do for a long time was faux stained glass. He designed the mural for the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center, which was unveiled June 19. Mount Zion Black Cultural Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is working to restore the Mount Zion Baptist Church and transform it into a community center. The original windows, made in the early 1900s, had to be taken out because of structural issues.
The mural painted on plywood depicts scenes from the history of the church and is designed to be taken apart for fundraising. Wilde’s still not done with the Cultural Center, there’s two more walls that need to be painted.
Wilde’s most recent work was for Baileys Lodging Company outside Chauncey, two-tenths of a mile from the Bailey Trail System trailhead.
Ever since Wilde painted the mural on Kindred Market, and before Laura Sowers even bought Baileys Lodging Company, she knew she wanted to commission Wilde. The container Wilde painted, called the Sugar Shack now displays large, brightly colored cupcakes, donuts and pies in a realistic style. In the negative spaces, relatively simple Keith Haring-inspired racoons run wild. They’re riding rockets and pogo sticks and parachuting in and doing all kinds of things to get their hands on some baked goods.
Sowers' goal was to exhibit the talent in Southeastern Ohio to minimize negative connotations of the area as well as direct guests into town to experience local bakeries, breweries and local art. Her land used to be owned by the coal companies, but she is rebuilding it into something locals can benefit from. Eventually, she would like to get some markers on the property telling the history of the land to the guests.
“Transforming this property, on a personal level, is incredibly gratifying,” Sowers said.
In 2022, Wilde painted a mural for Michelle Wilson, a financial advisor heading Athens Impact. The circular mural, done with house paint on aluminum, is of a woman taming the Bull of Wall Street in a field of flowers with the skyscrapers of Wall Street in the background.
Wilson and Wilde worked to convey the values and goals of their business, connecting money to social issues to change society. One of their ideas came from hippies during the Vietnam War putting flowers in guns.
“He came up with the idea, and I feel like it’s a really good image for what we’re trying to do,” Wilson said. “It isn’t just to make people feel good about themselves, it’s actually to create a better society.”
Wilson tries to accomplish this by helping people align their investments with their values. She mostly works with individuals and she doesn’t require a minimum investment amount.
One of Wilde’s most emotionally moving pieces was the memorial mural for Joe Berman completed Christmas of 2021. Joe Berman was a faculty member of Ohio University. His wife, Lynda Berman, commissioned the short-lived mural. It was painted on OU’s graffiti wall, and all alumni who came back to town for Joe Berman’s memorial service could see it. Spray paint is not often used in Wilde’s murals, but in this one, it was used to create chaotic line art. Lynda Berman was also able to paint a bit of the mural herself.
One of Wilde’s projects, the East Side Mural Map, can be found on Wilde’s website and connects 18 murals in a 2.7-mile loop. Many artists’ work is along the trail, including Joe Marzin, Barry O’keefe and Jared Black. Wilde recommends that people start their walk at the Athens Public Library.
