‘For the Farmer’ Motel bear lake mural | Bear Lake, MI 2026
Hugely important and impactful mural for me! A mural dedicated to farmers, migrants, the land and all the things we grow!
I’ve been talking with Marta of @motelbearlake for a while about building up a narrative piece that tells a bit of the story of Bear Lake and the agrarian impact of the Manistee region as a whole. She did a huge bulk of the research and put me in touch with @zenfarmllc to build up some references from all these families histories of working with the land.
This mural tells a tiny sliver of the story of generational farmers and the migrant community that grow the food that nourishes us. A farmer adds to a lush pile of radishes, a row of the old migrant housing dripping through the piece. Hands picking corn in the rain. Jackpines at night, lining the long dark roads. The land is lush and we are the ones to tend to it!
Dreamy, dreamy, dreamy place to work. If you get the chance to stay at Motel Bear Lake make sure you do it. The people here are wonderful and the land is lush, it’s enough to give you hope. Huge thank you to the Manistee Area Racial Justice and Diversity Initiative for helping to make this mural happen, @zenfarmllc for the reference images and narrative of family and migrant history, and most especially Marta of @motelbearlake for being an absolute force and making this happen and giving me a chance in a year when I really needed it. Love ya, I’ll be back soon.
