Everyone Wants to Leave Their Mark

Weaving narrative with vivid hues and at a massive scale, artist Mickael Broth’s Everyone Wants to Leave Their Mark is the Taubman Museum of Art’s newest outdoor mural on view. Located adjacent to Morning Brew Coffee Company under the Williamson Road overpass facing Norfolk Avenue, the mural recounts the journeys of Broth’s family and friends in addition to his own experiences, ultimately exploring the human desire to leave an everlasting mark on a transient world.

“Everyone Wants to Leave Their Mark centers around the idea that we all want to create some lasting impact on the world. That theme is expressed literally and figuratively throughout the piece, with a focus on the artist’s immediate friends and family. While Mickael hopes viewers will bring their own interpretations and ideas to the work, he also enjoys sharing the details and thoughts that go into the work. His mother is referenced in the woman gardening among a sea of blooming flowers, while his two year old son, Maverick, finger-paints his favorite things (a monster truck, the Eiffel Tower, a giraffe) on the wall nearby. In fact, Maverick did paint some of the marks in that section, with help from dad of course. The desolate skatepark is a representation of a DIY skate spot built by the artist and his friends which was become a part of Richmond’s skateboard history. The figure tattooing his own chest is one of the artist’s best friends, Michael, who took his own life in 2015. He was a tattooer who literally left his mark on hundreds of people, including multiple pieces on Broth. Further along the piece there are more references to Mickael’s loved ones; a daruma doll tattoo on his wife that is indicative of her pursuit of a doctoral degree in education, his father who is a dentist, his crew of camping friends, his own fluorescent orange nails which he refers to as “war paint,” alongside nods to human ingenuity, from the Blue Ridge Tunnel to pyramids constructed by great cultures around the globe who were all intent on leaving their own  mark.”

—Mickael Broth