It’s as bone-chilling as a cloudy winter’s day in Ireland in Christian Kanienberg’s workshop, tucked among dozens of other businesses in rows of warehouses.

That’s appropriate, at least this month, because Kanienberg is finishing a couple of projects for the “Legends of Ireland” -themed 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show.

“I’ve been working two months straight on this,” said the 32-year-old Brandywine Hundred resident, a tall, thin man resembling a younger Kiefer Sutherland.

Dressed in paint-spattered baggy jeans and an orange work shirt, he points to seven 12-foot-tall tree trunks he fashioned out of two-by-fours, masonite and urethane foam, made to look as mossy and damp as any on the Emerald Isle.

The hollow trunks will hold floral sculptures representing the seven types of fairies from Irish lore.

He’s also building a Druid-like “stone” arch for a Subaru kiosk at the show.

Although Kanienberg began his business, Wish Painting and Sculpture, nearly three years ago, he’s been working with the flower show for five years.

But he’s also painted murals on the insides of restaurants and other businesses, including L’Angolo Di Tivoli in West Chester, Pa., and a large Wilmington-themed mural for Junior Achievement in Wilmington, among many others.

“We had a group of muralists come in and bid on the job,” said Frank McIntosh, director of Junior Achievement of Delaware. “He was probably the least experienced, but he had more passion for what we were trying to do there. I wanted to hire someone who shared my passion for the project, and he was the guy. And we never regretted it.”

Kanienberg became more or less the house painter for other businesses in Junior Achievement’s downtown building and still works out of a studio there.

He also painted the CSX Bridge in Newark.

“Boy, that was fun,” he said. “Cars going by on either side of me, cursing at me.”

More than half of his clients are homeowners looking for something special, often a themed children’s room.

Many are unsure at first about going all out with a room.

Clarissa and Bjorn Haglid were watching “Elf,” the Will Ferrell Christmas comedy, on TV when they realized what they wanted to do with their child’s room. “We decided we wanted a Winter Wonderland theme,” said Clarissa, who was pregnant with the couple’s first child.

On one wall, they were going to put up oversized stickers of polar bears and seals and penguins. Then she heard about Kanienberg.

“Chris came, and we decided to do more than one wall, and he came up with this drawing, and we were very happy with it,” she said.

It cost $2,400.

“The cost was outstanding for what he did,” said Haglid.

Kanienberg completed the room in less than two weeks. He finished on Dec. 6, the day the Haglids’ child, Wyatt, was born. “It’s a room he can have for more than 10 years,” Clarissa said.

Painting and drawing come easily to Kanienberg. One of his earliest memories is drawing with his grandfather, a skilled cartoonist, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was born and raised.

He met his wife, Anna, a Delaware native, while attending the University of Cincinnati.

They moved to Delaware in 1999 to be closer to her parents. Their only child, Owen, was born in 2003.

After working as a project manager for local scene and mural shops and building up a base of clients, he decided to strike out on his own.

People who choose to hire a muralist for a room in their home, as the Haglids did, have to weigh their options, he said.

“How tired are you going to be with a regular paint job?” he asked. “Some people want a unique environment for their children to grow up in.”

But it really depends on the client’s personality, he said.

“Our house is very artistic, and each room has a lot of art,” Clarissa Haglid said. “It just felt right.”

If the Haglids’ mural lasts 10 years, it’s a better fate than his flower show work faces.

When the show ends, the products of two months of work — the tree trunks, stones and the arch — will be thrown away.

“That’s the most heart-breaking thing,” Kanienberg said.
Contact Victor Greto at 324-2832 or vgreto@delawareonline.com.

source : www.delawareonline.com