Howards Grove native's mural at Parker John's features pigs, puns and local waterways
SHEBOYGAN — The next time you walk into Parker John’s, 705 Riverfront Drive, you will see several new guests at a bar: five pigs.
They're not actual pigs, but rather characters of a mural above the east windows, painted by Howards Grove native Mary Athorp, 18.
“It was just a really good outlet for me,” Athorp said.
Athorp, a freshman at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, was looking for a way to earn some money before returning to school in February. She deferred a semester to take a mission trip to Costa Rica and returned home in November.
It was an awkward and short amount of time to get a job, she said, so she took to social media with a commission callout for murals.
“I knew that I have a really hard time sitting still, and I love painting,” Athorp said. “In Costa Rica, actually, I did a lot of painting there. So, I was like, ‘OK, well, why don't I use that and try to be creative with the gifts that I've been given?’”
Tim Bartz, general manager at Parker John’s in Sheboygan, saw the posting and ran the idea past owners Aaron and Jennifer Sloma.
He said he remembered Athorp painted Hydroflask water bottles and tennis shoes in high school, after he was her sixth-grade science and social studies teacher at Howards Grove Middle School.
Bartz said he thought a mural could add another element to the “barbecue joint decor” already in the restaurant.
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Pigs at the Parker John's bar
The chosen image was narrowed down from six ideas, brainstormed in Athorp’s notebook with reference photos and discussed with Bartz and the Slomas. Some ideas were a pig family eating dinner together and two pigs falling in love.
“It was just these kind of silly ideas,” Athorp said.
In the scene, four pigs are sitting at the Parker John’s bar, a few holding drinks. A martini sits on the bar in front of a girl pig, who has eyelashes and a tuft of hair. She seems to be talking with another pig with glasses and a goatee, who Athorp said was inspired by Bartz.
Another pig wears an orange shirt, holds a pint and waves to the bartender pig, who's cleaning a glass behind the bar and donning a black T-shirt with “PJ’s” in white text on a shirt pocket. The last pig at the far-left end is wearing a ball cap and green-and-gold shirt with “GB Porkers” down the sleeves, a pun on the Green Bay Packers and pigs.
There are two shelves of alcohol, several green and blue cans cleverly named “3 Pigs” instead of 3 Sheeps Brewing. They sit above a partially visible “Spotted Pig” sign, rather than a New Glarus Brewing Co. Spotted Cow sign. The sight of boats on the Sheboygan River along with Blue Harbor Resort and some businesses on South Pier Drive are visible behind the pigs in a painted window.
The pig bar scene came from her dad’s suggestion of doing something similar to “Dogs Playing Poker,” a series of paintings from Cassius Marcellus Coolidge that feature dogs doing just that. The most famous of them is “A Friend in Need” from 1903.
Athorp said the Slomas suggested including the waterfront and boats. She especially liked exploring a new color-mixing technique for the boats, painting the features of the girl pig and incorporating pig puns.
She came in to work in the early morning hours so she could focus, surrounded by the singular sounds of music or a podcast and the light of the sunrise. The mural took about 25 hours spread over three weeks.
Her parents have always been supportive of her exploring creativity, Athorp said. With this venture, her dad helped her set up scaffolding equipment she borrowed from her uncle’s farm.
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“It's just absolutely amazing,” Bartz said. “I knew Mary had talent. I just didn't realize the degree to which her talent extended.
“Just the subtle nuances she chose to include," like the puns, he continued. "She's a sweet girl. She doesn't always let all of that out, but through her art I think she let out the humor that she actually enjoys celebrating."
Bartz said Parker John’s could add a picture frame of reclaimed barn board around the mural so it can “fit the motif of the restaurant" even better.
Athorp is working on murals at the Kiel Parker John’s and a local dog kennel, too.
The type of painting or canvas doesn't matter so much to Athorp. She said, "If I'm having fun, it can be whatever it is. Or if I'm making somebody else smile, that's what matters.”
Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@gannett.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @alexx_garner.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Howards Grove native paints mural at Parker John's restaurant
