Fox Lake welcomes unique 600-pound mural created by historic Lake County painter

FOX LAKE – At 600 pounds and 72 square feet, a new stainless-steel mural inside the Parks and Recreation building in Fox Lake is hard to miss.

Efforts to bring it to the village have been ongoing for the past year as village officials worked with the Great Lakes National Museum of the Sailor on an agreement to borrow the unique fine art masterpiece.

Installing it was no small feat.

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Candace H. Johnson for Shaw Local News Network A detail in the Buell Mullen mural on display at the Lakefront Park building in Fox Lake. The mural titled, "Hong Kong," features a view of the Hong Kong harbor and is on loan from the National Museum of the American Sailor. The mural is approximately 20 ft. long and six-feet high on stainless steel and weighs about 600 pounds. This is one of a two pieces in a mural set with the other piece on display at the County Building in downtown Waukegan. (10/31/22) (Candace H.Johnson)

“It’s been a three-week process just to get it in the building,” said Amy Whitis, interim Parks and Recreation manager for the village.

“Hong Kong” – created by a Lake County native, the late Buell Mullen – now has found a home at 71 Nippersink Road in Fox Lake for at least the next three years.

“We’re proud to display it and support our military,” Whitis said.

The mural, officially unveiled this week as part of a village reception, was drawing attention even before its completion.

“When the gym is open for open gym and things like that, people definitely stop in to look at it and appreciate it,” Whitis said. “The art is very unique in terms of the method used. I’ve never seen anything on stainless steel like this.”

Completed by Mullen, who lived in Highland Park and died in 1986, the massive mural depicts a couple of Naval ships and daily life at a Hong Kong harbor.

Featured in Time magazine and other national media, Mullen pioneered a method of painting on metal using etching and acid that is still used today. The method, featuring a luminescent shine while refracting light, is designed to ensure that the paintings last for a thousand years, even if exposed to elements.

According to a Time article, “the metal method was evolved through rigorous experimentation. Mrs. Mullen left her paintings out in snowstorms, stowed them in damp places, cooked them on hot radiators, to see how they would take it.”

Mullen created “Hong Kong” in 1942 during World War II for the U.S. Naval Academy, along with another piece called “London.” The “London” mural, depicting a London harbor, was installed last year at the Lake County Building in Wauconda, also through an agreement with the Great Lakes National Museum of the Sailor.

Both murals basically were hidden from public view on Navy campuses until the 1990s. Both ended up in Great Lakes.

At one point they were on display in the U.S. Navy chief’s mess hall at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“When they needed to take them down, we were asked if we were interested,” said Samantha Belles, collections manager for the National Museum of the American Sailor.

As an official Department of the Navy museum, the museum’s galleries and collections are housed on the Great Lakes Naval Base.

The stainless-steel pieces are the largest of Mullen’s works, Belles said, and came to Great Lakes just before the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, they were not officially put on display right away.

“We were lucky enough to find a place happy to display them and they’re actually being seen by the public,” Belles said.

When Deb Waszak, Fox Lake’s village administrator, heard about the installment of “London” in Waukegan, she suggested that Mullen’s other masterpiece come to Fox Lake. Waszak previously served on the boards of the National Museum of the American Sailor and the Navy League.

“Let’s try to bookend the county with these two pieces,” she said, “so people at both ends of the county can enjoy work from a Lake County artist.”

As part of the agreement with the National Museum of the American Sailor, “Hong Kong” will be on display for three years with an option to have the display extended, Waszak said.

“I think it’s a wonderful enhancement for a Lake County artist to be part of our community,” she said, adding the installation kind of kicks off a planned renovation of Lakefront Park. The park will feature a boardwalk, municipal piers, an amphitheater, a playground, a splash pad and other amenities.

“By next year, this piece of artwork will be surrounded by a beautiful park,” she said.

She expects the new mural to raise awareness of the village of Fox Lake and enhance the village’s Summer Art Series by inspiring both young and old.

Mullen began her career as a portrait painter. Among her subjects were President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jacqueline Cochran, Gen. George C. Marshall, Eugene Ormandy, Nelson Eddy and Chiang Kai-Shek. Fox Lake is proud to have her work and to highlight that she came from Lake County, Waszak said.

“It is really something that I think is important for everyone and I hope people can come out and enjoy it,” she said.