A trio of artists with connections to Ferris State University helped power a free public event aimed at further enlivening the Grand Rapids cityscape with large-scale murals promoting ecological conservation.
Earlier this summer, the Pleasant Peninsula Mural Festival transformed the area under a downtown highway overpass into an immersive and family-friendly event space.
The festival featured an artist’s market, guided creative activities, an educational speaker series, live music, and tons of nature-inspired original artwork on display, including over two dozen new murals that each spotlight a different threatened or endangered species native to Michigan.
Emily Luyk is one of the 21 artists from around the United States and Canada who was selected to create murals for the festival. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration from Ferris State’s Kendall College of Art and Design in 2017 before establishing herself as a full-time illustrator, fine artist and muralist.
Luyk has created commissioned murals for Starbucks in Lansing and Sparrows Coffee in Grand Rapids and is one of the featured muralists on the Lansing Art Path river trail. But more so than her resume, it was her detailed and fantastical compositions—focusing on plants, animals, and the cosmos—that captured the attention of festival organizers.
“Nature is where I’ve always felt a larger connection to the world, and I think that, along with loving to draw and paint my whole life, has always fed my creative practice,” Luyk said. “It’s built in me this deep appreciation for the outdoor world, and my creative practice is all about inspiring people to slow and recognize the incredible resource have in the natural world and wanting to preserve that for everyone to enjoy.”
Each muralist was paired with an educator who helped them more deeply understand the species they were focusing on in their mural. For Luyk, that was the Eastern massasauga rattlesnake, Michigan’s only venomous snake.
“I got to speak with people who work with the Eastern massasauga, and it was such a unique aspect of the process to get to draw inspiration from the knowledge they shared,” she said. “I appreciated being able to have a realistic depiction of the species while still having creative control over colors and composition and being able to let my style shine through.”
In addition to her mural work, Luyk exhibits widely—most recently holding a solo exhibition at Kellog Community College in Battle Creek —and travels around the country participating in art markets. She’ll also be featured in the artist’s market at the Pleasant Peninsula Mural Festival and sees public events like this as core to her career as an artist because of their connective potential, both in terms of new audiences and future collaborations with other creatives.
“It was great to see so many people come out to Pleasant Peninsula and I hope that it keeps getting bigger and more popular every year,” she said. “I’d love to see more people interested in what we're doing and why we're there, and it’s also just another step in continuing to support and grow the arts community in Grand Rapids.”
The Grand Rapids-based artist who greatest using the name Jay is another one of the festival’s featured muralists and a fellow KCAD alum. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration 2020, they also made advocacy-focused public art projects an early emphasis in their career.
In 2021, Jay was selected by local arts nonprofit Lions & Rabbits to create a sidewalk mural though a project aimed at highlighting the critical role storm drains play in maintaining healthy waterways in our community. In 2022, they undertook an apprenticeship with non-profit Dwelling Place that included supporting a mural project and creating a miniature mural for display in one of the organization’s community gardens.
That apprenticeship led them to their first commissioned opportunity: a massive three-wall mural at local bar/restaurant Stella’s Lounge that took them five weeks and over 100 hours of work to complete. For Jay, the time investment of large-scale public art is well worth it considering the unique opportunity it presents for connection with audiences.
“Anything from murals to street art can say a lot about the communities they exist in, and I think having space for that type of public expression is valuable to anyone,” they said. “Public art makes me feel more connected to the world around me. It’s a sign of life— writing on walls is a human instinct as old as time.”
Pleasant Peninsula organizers were drawn to Jay’s previous mural experience and to their vibrant, richly detailed style inspired by the world of animation and comic books. Participating in the festival offered Jay an opportunity to connect their creativity to complimentary passions for art, nature, and community.
“Being a part of Pleasant Peninsula was honestly a dream project,” they said. “I think there’s something really magical about getting so many creative people in one place working towards the same goal. I loved getting to meet and work alongside so many other skilled artists and amazing people—nothing can beat that.”
Jay’s assigned species—the American bumblebee—provided a deep well of inspiration. Learning about bees through their paired educator led them to focus their process and their composition on helping audiences “see” the insect from a more relatable viewpoint.
“One thing that really excited me about exploring this species in the context of a mural was getting to play with scale.” they said. “I tried to push the perspective to help emphasize the feeling of being on the bee’s level.”
Current KCAD Illustration student Mikaila Doede got to experience the festival from another angle: as an apprentice to muralist Dustin Hunt, also known as Muralmatics.
Doede is part of a group of emerging artists chosen by festival organizers from a pool of applicants to support and be mentored by their more established peers. As an aspiring muralist who’s already painted a car during ArtPrize 2024 and created a large-scale piece on the KCAD campus through a summer mural course, she leaned fully into the chance to soak up Hunt’s wisdom and perspective as she charts her own creative career path.
“It was really cool—I was just firing off questions about his process, the materials he uses, how he finds clients,” Doede said. “As I go forward, a big thing for me is flexibility: I want to be able to use my type of art and style under different conditions, so learning from Dustin how he approaches that has been so valuable.”
Doede and her fellow apprentices also created their own original, smaller-scale artworks that were displayed alongside the larger murals during the festival. They also participated in several professional development opportunities that connected them with more of the artists and organizers behind the festival.
Having just started her final year at KCAD this fall, she sees Pleasant Peninsula as yet another opportunity to refine her vision for the future.
“My goal is to launch my own artist brand and maybe a retail shop to go with it, so my mindset is to be continually exploring how I can set myself up for that while also looking for and being open to other possibilities like this mural festival that will aid in the process of getting there,” Doede said. “Getting connected to all these artists makes me feel more comfortable about life after graduation, because it helps me be more connected to creative community and more aware of what the reality out there is like.”
Release and photo courtesy of Ferris State University.
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