Ryan Patrick Hooper

Special to the Detroit Free Press

A stunning portrait of Stevie Wonder will be the latest addition to downtown Detroit’s skyline.

Measuring roughly 100 feet tall, the new mural of the iconic Motown singer is being painted by London-based artist Richard Wilson, who was busy Monday — the singer’s 69th birthday — finishing details of Wonder’s face and neck.

Visible from Brush Street on the south-facing wall of the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Wilson’s portrait spans roughly 8,000 square feet and is large enough to be seen by an airplane passing overhead.

“For me, he’s the greatest living singer, songwriter and musician,” said the 45-year-old Wilson. “In 300 years, I’m sure he’ll be looked (at) as a Beethoven, Mozart, Bach — that kind of epic influence on humanity.”

That strong conviction about Wonder’s musical legacy is what landed Wilson at Music Hall in the first place.

Wilson flew himself to Detroit earlier this month to start the project on his own dime. He’s paying for his own accommodations, the equipment needed to complete a mural and the paint — roughly 100 gallons of exterior house paint sourced locally from Motor City Paint in Grosse Pointe Woods.

He conservatively estimates that the entire mural will cost “at least $10,000” and take another two weeks to complete, depending on weather.

“I’m not getting paid for it, and it’s costing a fortune, but I’m too far gone to turn back,” said Wilson. “Every day I’m having those moments where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is ridiculous. Why am I doing this?’ I’m a struggling artist. I’m literally living off savings I’ve got from having sold my apartment a few years ago. I just think life’s too short. I’ve got to make it happen.”

Once finished, the mural will honor an iconic 1976 photo of Wonder sitting at a keyboard taken by photographer Douglas Kirkland. In that photo, Wonder was wearing a T-shirt that said “contusion.” Wilson will switch it to read “Detroit.”

Wilson will also add some signature instruments from Wonder’s career like the Hohner D6 clavinet he used on “Superstition” and a Fender Rhodes keyboard that became a staple of his sound. Music Hall gave him complete creative control of the piece, he said.

The portrait of Wonder will join a series of murals that Wilson has created depicting his heroes, including a 65-foot mural of actor Will Smith in Smith’s hometown of Philadelphia and musician Roy Ayers in London.

“Music that I listen to inspires me to paint,” said Wilson.

Instead of following the usual protocol of being commissioned by Music Hall to complete the mural, Wilson first pitched the idea to the music venue after completing a mural last year in nearby Eastern Market as part of the Murals in the Market street art festival. (That mural was yet another homage to homegrown musical talents from Detroit, depicting a massive shelf of vinyl records by artists like jazz icon Donald Byrd and hip-hop producer J Dilla.)

“He just arrived on our doorstep one day,” said Vince Paul, who has spent the past 13 years as president and artistic director of Music Hall.

After wrapping the Stevie Wonder mural, Paul says Wilson will stick around for a second massive mural on the west-facing wall of Music Hall.

Commissioned by the London-based nonprofit Education Is Not A Crime, the mural will feature a young African American boy staring at the stage of Music Hall. According to a statement on its website, the mural will aim to highlight the lack of access to quality education for people of color.

The nonprofit is also in town spearheading an effort to build bus shelters that double as art installations and free book depositories for local students along the new GOAL bus line.

For Music Hall, the goal is to bring “the inside of the hall outside so people could see it,” Paul said.

With thousands of cars and pedestrians walking by the Music Hall on their way to a concert or sporting event at nearby Ford Field and Comerica Park, Paul sees an opportunity to turn the wall space from something “drab to iconic” that helps promote the venue.

“It’s always been my beef with some of Detroit that we have a lot of blank walls,” said Paul. “Those walls, to me, they articulate, ‘Stay out! There’s a big brick wall here! You can’t come in!’ ”

Wilson didn’t wait to be invited in, either.

“Sometimes you can’t wait for people to come and ask you to paint Stevie Wonder 100-foot tall on the Music Hall,” Wilson said. “You have to try and make it happen.”

