{"id":797534,"date":"2026-08-01T14:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797534\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:30:10","slug":"wings-for-change-lewiston-artists-teaming-up-to-cover-vandalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797534\/","title":{"rendered":"Wings for Change: Lewiston artists teaming up to cover vandalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wings for Change: Lewiston artists teaming up to cover vandalism with art<\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>LEWISTON, Maine \u2014<\/p>\n

The Lewiston public art committee is teaming up with local artists to help property owners cover vandalism and graffiti. Wings of Change is a free initiative intended to beautify the city and also promote public art. <\/p>\n

Melanie Therrien, owner of Wicked Illustrations<\/a>, started the effort. She’s a professional artist who teaches classes, hosts parties, and takes commissions out of her studio on Canal St. <\/p>\n

Therrien, who grew up in Lewiston, is also a community advocate. She said, \u201cI still feel like at the core, it\u2019s the same wonderful city that it\u2019s always been. We have a lot of people working towards making things better.\u201d <\/p>\n

She’s one of those people putting in the work to make improvements. She has a long history of pushing for public art and working on projects throughout Lewiston. \u201cWe don\u2019t like to have any empty storefronts without art, or every time I see an empty wall I\u2019m like, \u2018what could I do there?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her work has been spotted in the city’s creative crosswalk initiative, on electrical boxes, and her signature “wicked wings alley” on Lisbon St. The Wings for Change collaboration between the city and other local artists is her latest project. <\/p>\n

She said, \u201cGraffiti is really awesome, but not when they\u2019re just scribbling over everything and writing profanities.\u201d Through August 24, property owners can submit a request for coverage, and an artist will work with them to cover the graffiti with a butterfly or another painting depicting wings. <\/p>\n

“Butterfly wings represent change,” Therrien said. “But all wings in general represent transformation and success.\u201d The service is completely free for the property owner. They only have to submit the request and grant the artist permission to paint on the building. <\/p>\n

Professional artists are not the only ones who can help. Therrien will host Community Paint Days through the summer for people to participate. The first is happening Saturday, August 1, from 1-3 p.m. at her studio. <\/p>\n

Everyone is welcome to help paint the butterfly wings she’s drawn on a special mural paper. Therrien will later use a special adhesive to stick the paper to the building. It’s what she’s used in similar projects in the past, like a butterfly mural<\/a> painted by the community after the Lewiston shootings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of people, if they take their passion and share it with the community, we can all make Lewiston better,” she said. Therrien likes public projects because it’s a free and accessible way to appreciate art. <\/p>\n

Requests for coverage can be submitted to wickedillustrations@gmail.com through August 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wings for Change: Lewiston artists teaming up to cover vandalism with art LEWISTON, Maine \u2014 The Lewiston public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1029,338455,228,226,227,5184,206793,229,88,45451,338456,31996,338447,338448,338449,10482,338450,338457,338458,338451,91074,39118,338452,338453,338454],"class_list":["post-797534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art","tag-art-classes-in-lewiston","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-auburn","tag-carl-sheline","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-graffiti","tag-how-to-remove-graffiti","tag-lewiston","tag-lewiston-art-committee","tag-lewiston-murals","tag-lewiston-violence","tag-maine","tag-melanie-therrien","tag-mural-artists-in-maine","tag-new-mural-in-lewiston","tag-rachel-adams","tag-ryan-adams","tag-vandalism","tag-wicked-illustrations","tag-wicked-wings-alley","tag-wings-for-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}