Since the wall in front of Tootooch the Thunderbird cannot be removed, artist Becky Hochhalter has been hired by the Vigo County History Center to paint the totem pole on the other side of the wall so passers-by can see it. Here, Hochhalter works on the painting Wednesday. Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza
Since the wall in front of Tootooch the Thunderbird cannot be removed, artist Becky Hochhalter has been hired by the Vigo County History Center to paint the totem pole on the other side of the wall so passers-by can see it. Here, Hochhalter works on the painting Wednesday. Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza
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Becky Hochhalter has fond childhood memories of the subject of her latest mural.

She remembers visiting the Vigo County History Center at its old Farrington Grove location to see Tootooch the Thunder Bird, a totem pole crafted from Southern California pine.

“I always looked forward to seeing it at the museum out on the lawn,” Hochhalter recalled. “I’m really glad it made it to the new location [on Wabash Avenue] so that future generations can remember this from their childhood, also.”

Tootooch resides in the stairway at the History Center, behind a wall that stands before windows facing outside.

“Because we’re on the National Register of Historic Buildings, we’re unable to remove this wall so that he can be seen from the outside,” said the museum’s executive director, Marla Flowers, who called Hochhalter’s mural mere feet from Tootooch “a little bit of an optical illusion.”

For someone who has all manner of murals around the city and elsewhere in Indiana and Illinois, even Hochhalter found this assignment unusual.

“This is kind of a different project, because the totem pole is a little bit abstract in its style,” she said. “I’m trying to depict it in a realistic way, but the style of the totem pole kind of fights that realistic style. So it’s a challenge.”

The faces adorning Tootooch represent members of a Native American tribe. A nearby plaque, ostensibly in the totem pole’s own words, reads “Towering above all, I protect all under my care. I will bring the best that life has to offer.”

Hochhalter will finish her Tootooch mural, made possible by a grant from Wabash Valley Community Foundation, on Friday. She will have another project with the History Center later this year.

On Sunday, however, she will travel to Indianapolis to work on a project for the NBA and the IndyArts Council for Feb. 18’s NBA All-Star game.

She is one of 24 artists painting on 6-foot basketball sculptures. Her theme is “The Milan Miracle,” about the smallest Indiana school ever to win a single-class state basketball title. Milan High School won the title in 1954, and the story was immortalized in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers.”
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