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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Homewood muralist Shawn Fitzwater of Fitz Hand Painted Signs stands at the corner of 28th Avenue and 18th Street. Fitzwater in late March painted a mural on the side of Battle Republic that reads “We Are All In This Together” as millions of Americans were in quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
The mural on the side of Battle Republic reads “We Are All In This Together” at the corner of 28th Avenue and 18th Street in downtown Homewood.
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Photo by Ingrid Schnader.
Edgewood is also getting a makeover with Shawn Fitzwater’s newest mural, which reads, “Welcome to Edgewood.” Fitzwater started working on this mural May 13. “I love painting large, bold and colorful lettering,” he said. “And I also like its location — it’s a bright introduction to a great community and area overall.” Look for this mural near the Chevron gas station on Oxmoor Road in Edgewood.
Shawn Fitzwater’s idea to paint the “We Are All In This Together” mural was a last-minute decision.
It was 6 p.m., Friday, March 27, when he was sitting on the couch at home and told his wife about his idea to paint an inspiring message on the Battle Republic building. This wall was a spot he’d always wanted to paint — it’s a huge white wall and perfect for a mural, he said.
His wife rolled her eyes at him as he told her his idea, knowing even if she tried to stop her husband, and he would do it anyway, Fitzwater said, laughing.
By 8:30 p.m., he was out the door. He was going to scope the place out. He didn’t ask anyone for permission to paint the mural, not even Battle Republic, so he didn’t want to get started if the street was busy.
But even though it was Friday night on one of Homewood’s busiest streets, Fitzwater said it was eerily quiet. Health concerns over the novel coronavirus had everyone staying safely at home.
“There wasn’t a soul in sight,” he said.“There might be one car pass by every three minutes. I thought, ‘This is weird.’ ... The weather was great. Usually people are out everywhere, eating out on the patios of places, eating out, driving all over the place.”
He originally thought he would have to wait until 1 a.m. to start painting, but seeing that no one was out, he started his mural right away, using a nearby street light to see the wall as he painted. It was about 65 degrees outside and windy, and the only sounds that accompanied him as he painted were distant wind chimes.
Every once in a while, a midnight driver would pass by, roll down the window and scream, “Right on, man!”
He painted as fast as he could. There aren’t any sidewalks in front of the mural, and he had a few “close calls” with cars passing by, he said. He packed up his supplies and left at 4 a.m., just a few hours before the sun would rise and passers by would wake up and see the new mural.
AN UPLIFTING MESSAGE
Lindsey Miller, one of the owners of Battle Republic, went to the lake “just to get away a little bit” on the weekend that Fitzwater painted the mural. Like other fitness centers and gyms deemed “non-essential,” Battle Republic closed amid public health concerns surrounding the novel coronavirus.
Saturday came and went without any of the Battle staff realizing there was a mural on their building. Then Sunday, one of the coaches was on a morning walk when she passed by and saw it.
“She sent a text and she was like, ‘Did y’all get something painted on the side of the building?’” Miller said. “She sent me a picture, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I love it.’”
Her next thought, she said, was that she hoped nobody would get mad. When she got home that night, she wrote her landlord an email telling him that a mural showed up on the building. She asked him if they could keep it there, and the landlord said he liked the mural, too.
“Our members who are driving by and have missed coming to Battle, they love seeing that,” Miller said. “It’s meant a lot to a lot of people.”
Miller and Fitzwater knew each other already, so Miller said Fitzwater probably knew she would be cool with it. He was brave though, she said.
“I think he knew it would be well received, but he still took a chance,” she said. “I was like, ‘This guy is pretty bold, and I like it.’”
In the middle of a global pandemic, “We Are All In This Together” was a message Miller needed to hear, she said.
“I think sometimes it’s hard to remember that,” she said. “It’s really easy to get caught up on what’s hard for you in this whole situation because everybody’s got such a different scenario. So it’s been really good for me to drive by there and remember, ‘Alright, we’re all going through this storm a little bit differently, but we’re in this together.’”
It was a message of which Fitzwater also needed to be reminded, he said. His business, Fitz Hand Painted Signs, was picking up steam right before the pandemic hit Homewood. The transition for Fitzwater, his wife and their three sons has been difficult, he said.
“I can’t sugarcoat it or lie about it — it’s been pretty tough, that transition,” he said. “You get to feeling like you’re having this stress, and you’re the only one.”
But when he spoke to his neighbors and friends, he said he realized they were going through the same struggles.
“That really rings true to that message,” he said, referring to the message he painted on the Battle Republic building. “You may think you’re going through this alone or that you have the most stress in the world right now. You’ve just got to know that you’re not alone. We’re all in it together.”
COMMUNITY RESPONSE
After Fitzwater painted the mural, people in Homewood immediately started to notice it. Not only strangers, but also some of Fitzwater’s friends, started sharing it on social media the day after he painted it.
Fitzwater didn’t tell anyone about his plans to paint the mural except his family and didn’t sign his name on it, so at first, none of them realized Fitzwater was the artist.
“What was really nice was people would say, ‘I was having such a tough day and a rough week, and then I saw this,’ and they’d take a picture of it,” he said. “That makes me happy. That’s what it’s there for, to help people through this rough time.”
The community response was overwhelming, he said.
“The feedback’s been great,” he said. “It’s not the greatest wall for going up and taking your picture in front of it ... because the road’s right up against it. So I didn’t expect too many people to stop and take pictures of it, but there are hundreds of pictures now. People are making it their Facebook banner.”
His friends at Vulcan Apparel Company approached him with the idea to print the mural on a T-shirt — something Fitzwater had never done before — and donate the proceeds to a local charity. They found BHM Cares, a non-profit that helps feed Birmingham’s health careworkers.
They sold more than 250 shirts and raised more than $3,000 during their seven-day campaign.
“That was pretty amazing, too,” he said. “We were talking before, like, ‘We’d be surprised if we sell 15 shirts.’”
He and his friends at Vulcan Apparel Company are in talks about reopening the campaign and possibly offering the shirt in more colors. Follow @fitzsigns on Instagram for updates.
Editor's Note: Shortly after painting the mural, Fitzwater was notified that the wall was scheduled to be repainted. The mural has since been painted over.