A pretty sweet painting

Sweet Marie’s Mercantile would like to help artistic students build their portfolio by allowing them to paint  the Mercantile with cheerful and meaningful artwork.

This work will support our local young artists to  purchase paint, pay our young artists and be able to involve themselves in changing the facade of one of  our prominent buildings in the downtown area of Saratoga. Murals not only spread cheer, but they create a  sense of community, beautify community spaces and increase tourism!

The mural Marie Christen designed includes our beautiful mountains with wildflowers and a dragonfly as  the focus. The dragonfly symbolizes change, transformation, adaptability, and self-realization. The  wildflowers will mainly be poppies and sunflowers. The beautiful Wyoming poppies signify remembrance  and hope through history. Poppies carry a message of peace with an underlying sentiment of soldier’s  sacrifice as they tend to grow on war-torn fields.

The meaning of sunflowers stems from their very nature -  always facing the sun. They symbolize unwavering faith and constant orientation towards the sun. They  are often associated with positivity, happiness and optimism and that is what we all need in a state that  has one of the highest levels of depression and suicide.

At the bottom of the mural, Marie Christen will  invite the families of Saratoga at a specified date for a community potluck to come and place their  children’s handprints at the bottom of the mural for the grass. These handprints will collectively tie in our  community and our youth so they will forever be a part of this mural!

Marie and Tyler Christen are the owners of Sweet Marie’s Mercantile and started business in downtown  Saratoga the summer of 2013 with Sweet Marie’s Bakeshop. They expanded in 2018 by adding Sweet  Marie’s Mercantile to the downtown shops and have taken this community project on to spread positivity  and happiness to everyone in the valley. To get this mural started, Marie contacted The Local Crowd (TLC)  crowdfunding platform which is a special Wyoming program for entrepreneurs to launch a crowdfunding  campaign. Those that are donating will be receiving gifts from Sweet Marie’s Mercantile corresponding  with the amount donated as well as a special print of the mural signed by the artists themselves.

The Community Navigator Program (CNP) enabled Marie to receive a package of extra benefits for her crowdfunding campaign valued at $1,800 that includes coaching, a business assessment, marketing  support and matching funds.

“This has been an eye opening experience that has helped me to connect  with local students and really bring my vision to bring Saratoga closer through artistic expression”, she  said.

The crowdfunding campaign is active now and can be viewed at https://sewyo.thelocalcrowd.coop/ product/share-saratoga-mural-love.

Those that are interested in donating can contact Marie Christen from Sweet Marie’s Mercantile or donate at  https://sewyo.thelocalcrowd.coop/product/share-saratoga-mural-love. They would like to invite the families of  Saratoga to join them for a community potluck on August 14th, 2024 from 6-8pm to get to know their neighbors  and also place their children’s handprints at the bottom of the mural to “plant the seeds” knowing that our children are our future.