Faculty, students complete mural for Dahlonega eatery

Vivian Liddell, a lecturer of visual arts at the University of North Georgia (UNG), and several of her students painted a mural for Foothill Grill in Dahlonega, Georgia, for a collaborative class project.  

"I created a large mural for a restaurant in Athens over the summer and had so much fun," Liddell said. "I wanted to share the same process with more students."

Participating in the project were Allison Wacho, a 2018 graduate, Lauren Kennedy, Maggie McLellan, and Sadie Mincey. McLellan, a senior from Homer, Georgia, pursuing a degree in studio art, said the project inspired her.

"The biggest way the mural has benefited me in pursuit of my degree is having the opportunity to experience what it is like to do large-scale art for a client as well as the knowledge of how to accomplish such a daunting task," McLellan said. "Working on the mural has given me insight on how to improve my art-making process.” 

Kennedy, a senior from Monroe, Georgia, pursuing a degree in art marketing, described the experience as a "learning curve."

"This project gave me an entirely new perspective on my work," she said. "I normally have worked on purely representational, naturalistic, smaller drawings. This has given me a new way to think about my future work and where I want to go as an artist." 

The group completed the artwork, located at 995 Morrison Moore Parkway West in Dahlonega, in December.