Hey Janesville, welcome back to my public art series! This week I’ll be covering the “Waves of Giving” mural painted on the Post Office! This piece was painted in 2020 by Jaime Brown and Karim Jabbari. The two artists came from vastly different backgrounds, Jaime being a Wisconsin native, while Karim is from Tunisia, North Africa. Their different experiences led them to blend together artistic styles to create a unique composition.
Jaime and Karim described the elements of the piece as such:
"The arrows on the top represent the forward thinking of the city.
The zigzags represent the river running through downtown.
The diamonds on the right are a stalk of wheat, from its earlier days establishing itself as an agricultural community.
The horizontal bars on the bottom are for the fallen tree trunks during the lumber/industrial part of the city.
The vertical lines are the train tracks for when the city became connected by rail. (huge move for exportation of goods, obviously)
And the two purple circles that intersect show a woman looking down and working on something. The small circle is her head, the big one is her body and the mango color is her face. She could be making a quilt, she could be making dinner. But generally speaking the woman is the heartbeat of the home. Those homes and families are the heartbeat of the community."
If you want to check out some more of their art, visit www.jaimebrownart.com but, of course, I encourage you to go check out this mural in person next time you’re at the post office first!
Source: Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau