BETHLEHEM, Pa. — No, you haven’t gone mad: there’s something different about the upstairs walls of the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, and it's inspired by the whimsical world of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.”
Patrons will spot familiar faces from Lewis Carroll’s beloved novel on a new mural located in the children’s area of the museum at 427 N. New St., Bethlehem.
- Artist Kathi Ember took inspiration from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" for the project
- The mural will be unveiled at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5
- Located on the second floor of the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, the artwork was inspired by the facility's checkered floors
Meet the artist
The design, which features anthropomorphic images of “Wonderland’s” ever-curious Alice, the Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit, will be unveiled at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5.
Artist and book illustrator Kathi Ember, who was hired by the Kemerer last summer to spruce up the white walls, was drawn to the museum's black and white checkered floors.
"When I met with the curator, Brett Peters, to discuss a mural for the area, I told him that I felt the room needed some bright intense colors on the wall and that the flooring called to mind an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme. He agreed. It is a beloved, classic story that is full of fantastic imagery," she said.
“There were two concepts that jumped into my mind first that I knew I wanted to include," Ember said. "One was that I wanted to pull the black and white floor right up into the mural to lead the viewer into Alice’s world. The other was that I wanted Alice to be falling and floating from above into the scene. Her body language and the look on her face had to be just right — not fear, but excitement and curiosity."
To prepare for the job, Ember re-read “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” and researched different ways illustrators created art for the novels.
“'Alice in Wonderland' was illustrated by many extremely talented classic illustrators, John Tenniel, Arthur Rackham and Peter Newell, who created classic illustrations that helped set the standard for the look of the characters in Alice,” she said. “I looked at their work as well as more recent work by more modern-day artists. For example, at all the ways the White Rabbit has been handled, and then found my own way with him.”
From paper to wall
The Kemerer project, which took an estimated 360 hours to complete, is Ember's third mural.
"The mural brightens up the children's space, but still has a bit of Victorian flair that matches the museum."Brett Peters, the mural curator
Her other designs, featuring large-like barnyard animals and dogs and cats, are located at Brandywine Heights High School in Topton and Silver Maple Veterinary Clinic in Kutztown.
"My preferred way of starting any project, a book illustration or a mural, is to jot down any idea that comes into my head and work up a number of very small thumbnail sketches. In a small thumbnail, I can focus on the action, and the composition," she said.
Ember uploaded a thumbnail of her sketches to Adobe Photoshop where she was able to alter the sizes of her designs and play with colors for the mural's backdrop.
"I started with the colors I knew. The background, the sky, the red mushrooms and the blue of Alice's dress. Then I start trying on different colors on all the other characters, considering the overall color balance and how the color leads your eye around the wall," she said. "I toyed around with the black and white tile path and decide it should gradually fade and change into dark green and lighter green squares."
Once she was done sketching, she and her husband brought large and small scaffolds to the museum and laid out a grid to transfer the drawings, plus a grey pencil to draw the outline of the mural on the walls.
"It took me about a week to get everything onto the wall. Once everything was transferred, I taped off the edges and put down some drop cloths. For the first mural I did, I consulted with an artist friend who is well known for his mural work about what type of paint he uses. He said, just get house paint. Buy the small sample jars in a satin or an eggshell. It was very good advice."
Using angled brushes, she mixed regular acrylics with the house paint and started with the large background areas.
During the nine weeks Ember was painting, Peters took photos on his iPhone and marveled at the process.
"I saw more and more of it being done every day, it was really exciting," he said. "The mural brightens up the children's space, but still has a bit of Victorian flair that matches the museum."
Tea time
Peters and Ember will speak at the unveiling ceremony. Attendees will also be able to purchase prints of the mural and other portraits curated by the artist.
Light refreshments and beverages will be served, and a surprise guest character from "Alice in Wonderland" is expected to attend.
There will also be an arts and crafts table set up where kids can design their own tea sets.
