MIA TAVONATTI (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

Work on a ninth Power of Words Project mural has been halted after designer and creative director Mia Tavonatti was injured this past weekend in a fall at the project site in Marquette.

The accident means the Marquette mural now won’t be completed until next year, rather than this fall as planned, Tavonatti said Thursday.

“My team is in really good spirits; they are all willing to come back next year to finish,” Tavonatti said, referring to her professional mural team of Sharon Maldonado and local artists, Emmalene Oysti, Sabrina Langdon, Michele Tuccini, Michelle Earle, Shannon Taylor and Sari Nomura.

The initial sketch of the mural, based on the word “Natural,” was almost completed on the former McDonald Music building at Ohio and Third streets.

Although her team was capable of finishing the mural without her, Tavonatti said she hadn’t completed her vision when injured.

“We have real talent up here, but they still need a leader,” she said.

While disappointed Tavonatti said the delay to spring 2020 “is giving me time to resolve the drawing more. We are positive we are going to make it better than planned, but we will have to wait a little,” Tavonatti said.

The Marquette mural would have been the third one this summer. Tavonatti recently completed the “Imagine” wall in Manistique and had just officially unveiled the Gladstone mural “Play” on Friday.

Manistique also is home to the “Discover” wall and Iron Mountain has five — “Believe,” “Community,” “Inspire,” “Hope” and “Welcome” murals.

While Iron Mountain had the first artworks — Tavonatti is a native of the city — Manistique has the largest gateway mural, and Gladstone currently has the biggest mural in the U.P. “I’ve designed the Gladstone and Manistique murals to be more interactive, which makes people more engaged in the murals. Everything is about emotion for me,” Tavonatti said.

Tavonatti thanked the donors and local artists who worked hard to get these projects off the ground.

“We ask for the communities continued support when the Power of Words Project returns,” she said.