In Milwaukee’s Third Ward, it’s kind of hard to miss the six-story mural of a human figure painted on the rear of a building at 320 E. Buffalo Street.
The painting shows a seated person wearing an apron, their hands crossed at their wrists, and resting on their knees. A stack of legal pads lay next to them.
In addition to its massive size, you’ve probably been drawn in by the fact that the figure does not have a head — the mural ends at their shoulders.
Heather Hathaway has driven past that mural a few times and wanted to know more — so she reached out to Bubbler Talk.
"I wonder what the headless mural is about in the Third Ward that you can see from the highway," Hathaway says.
The mural is called The Unsung Hero. It was painted in 2019 by German artist, Case Maclaim, who specializes in photorealistic murals, many of which center the subject’s hands.
A viewer could assume The Unsung Hero is some sort of laborer. They’re wearing an apron and their hands look like those of a person who works with their hands.
This mural is an entry point to the history of the building it’s painted on and the people who worked there.
“So, this is called the Dye House,” says Jim Plaisted, the executive director of the Historic Third Ward Association. “And to the south of the Dye House, across Buffalo, it’s called the Phoenix Building. This was a hosiery business back in the day, in the early 1900s, and almost exclusively [had] women employees.”
“So, the hosiery would be put together — sewed together, if you will — manufactured in the Phoenix Building. It would go literally underneath Buffalo — there’s a tunnel there today that connects the two buildings; it’s been closed off, but it’s there — and then go into the Dye House, and they would dye them,” Plaisted explains.
Plaisted says the idea for a mural came from the building’s former owners, Singerman Real Estate. The company was renovating the building at the time.
Plaisted says the company connected with Stacey Williams-Ng, the founder of Wallpapered City, a group that was the liaison for many Milwaukee murals.
Williams-Ng found Case Maclaim.
Plaisted says artist Maclaim was inspired by the history of the buildings and the story of working-class women. Maclaim wanted a woman entrepreneur to use as a model for his painting.
"So, me and my staff, we put together seven women, gave him headshots, gave him a brief bio about their story and especially about their business in the Third Ward and he picked Karen."
That would be Karen Bell, the chef and owner of Bavette La Boucherie, a butcher shop and café in the Third Ward.
"They explained to me that they wanted to do a mural on the Dye Building and that they wanted to pay tribute to the history of the building and more specifically pay tribute to working women — past and present," Bell says.
Bell says she was honored to be a part of the mural.
In a 2019 Instagram post about the mural, Maclaim wrote: “To pay tribute to Milwaukee’s female working class heroes from the past, and to celebrate the present ones, I came up with this sketch of an anonymous representative.”
Bell, who modeled for the mural, says she was just that — the model: a representation of working women.
"That’s kind of what it meant to me. And I think if my head were on it then it would be more about me when it shouldn’t. That’s really not the point at all," Bell adds.
The mural received a range of reactions when it was unveiled. On social media, some agreed that without a face, all women could see themselves as The Unsung Hero. But there were people who felt a headless woman perpetuated an idea that women are invisible and unseen for their work.
At the end of the day, art is open to interpretation. There’s always more than meets the eye.
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