A Winston-Salem-based company, Heritage Puzzle, is turning a North Carolina-themed mural painted by three artists from Chapel Hill retirement community Carolina Meadows into a puzzle.

Margaret Zircher, one of the artists, says the theme of the mural began with Carolina Meadows’ annual fundraising efforts.

“Every year Carolina Meadows supports several major fundraising activities like United Way and the food bank, and one of the others that we support is UNC-TV public television and public media, and so the mural was done as part of a month-long activity on calling attention to UNC-TV and the fundraising effort that we did. So the theme for this years’ fundraiser was ‘All things North Carolina,’”said Zircher.

Two artists who worked on last year’s mural, Zircher and Susan Gaca, were selected to design and paint this year’s mural once the theme was decided, but Zircher says their internet search turned up much more than they were expecting.

“I started googling about North Carolina on the internet and just realized that this state is a real treasure trove of history and things where it’s first in the nation or unique and whatever,” Zircher said. “So we started concentrating on that, and we just started pulling off ideas from the internet and there was more than we could picture on the mural,” said Zircher.

A third artist, retired orthodontist Dr. William Davis, was added to the project once the artists realized they might not finish in time.

“It just seemed like every which way we turned there was some wonderful history involved,” said Zircher. “There’s just so much about this state, it’s just so rich in its culture.”

Zircher says the project was a learning experience where she found many new things about North Carolina such as historical facts about lighthouses, UNC – Chapel Hill’s history, the significance of the Lost Colony, the invention of Pepsi-Cola and the bird migration at Lake Matamuskeet.

According to Zircher, the image of the mural was done in the folk-art style of 19th-century New England muralist Rufus Porter and was thought to be made into a puzzle after a Carolina Meadows staff member suggested it.

The artists then entered the puzzle into a contest for Our State Magazine and did not win but through it discovered Heritage Puzzle.

“When they saw the image of the mural, they called me, and they said, ‘We don’t care if you enter or win this contest, we want to carry this image in our puzzle line.’ They had been looking for an image incorporating all of North Carolina, and they said this is the best image that they had come across,” said Zircher.

Heritage Puzzle agreed to print the puzzle, as well as a fun-facts guide the artists made explaining each icon in the mural, with part of the proceeds going to UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina.

Zircher says she hopes people find the puzzle fun, interesting and educational.

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