There’s a new mural on the side of a building in Three Oaks. Painted on the side of Sweet on Elm, a new candy and ice cream store at 15 North Elm Street, is a depiction of a cabinet full of old-fashioned candy jars. Edwardsburg-based artist Chris Stackowicz spent 56 days creating the mural after being contacted by the shop’s owner, Colleen Froehlich. Colleen tells us she wanted to open a candy shop to fill a void in Three Oaks, and she wanted the building to have something special that reflected the business.
“I’ve been staring at this side of the building for 31 year,” Froehlich said. “When we moved across the street and expanded our kitchen and pantry across the street from the bakery, we put up signage on the wall, and we have our patio that faces that wall, and nothing really seemed to work. People just didn’t see that wall and it didn’t matter what we put on it.”
Stackowicz has previously worked on about 100 murals, many in South Bend, and tells us the shop gave him free license to chose a concept. He presented three proposals, going with the candy cabinet. He says it while he loves all kinds of art, murals are special to him.
“It’s not like going to a museum where you have to pay an entrance fee or have certain decorum to see a work of art, and it’s also not like a work of art that’s kept in someone’s house that only their friends and relatives get to see,” Stackowicz said.
People often stopped by to chat with Stackowicz while he was working on the Three Oaks mural. He’s hoping to paint other murals in southwest Michigan. Sweet on Elm is now open for business, offering a variety of sweets and baked goods.
