smallBOX

Downtown Cleveland needed a spark to drive residential interest and growth. Enter smallBOX, a retail popup district made of up-cycled shipping containers and wood palettes. Cleveland's Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation (HWDDC) needed a creative partner to transform the parking lot into a comfortable and inviting meeting space. We created "The Lawn," using anti-graffiti paint on corrugated steel with a design that complimented the environment with a clearly differentiated aesthetic to command recognition and raise awareness.

Erotic Vultures

A series of erotic charcoal figure studies created for a winter exhibition at a restaurant and wine bar in New York City’s East Village, in 2012. The artwork was designed to provoke sexual and creative curiosity with abstract juxtapositions that bely scenes of intimate sensuality.

The Erotic Vultures exhibit immediately became a popular attraction for young and new couples, who enjoyed the unexpected inspiration and conversational opportunities afforded by each piece. The restaurant was fully booked all winter and extended the exhibit several months due to the creative atmosphere’s viral popularity with online dating applications.

Believeland

Cleveland's Historic Warehouse and Flats Districts were connected by a chalkboard wall that had been created 13 years earlier to cover graffiti, but had since been neglected and vandalized. Seeing this as an opportunity to redefine the neighborhood and create a positive experience for visitors, I organized a Chalk It Up event with some colleagues and created the large scale murals that have since redefined the area as "Believeland." This work has been embraced by everyone, radically shifting the way people view the neighborhood, Clevelanders, and Cleveland itself. Based on this initial murals, Nike selected the site for its Together campaign, the return of Lebron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers. They brought us back to create Believeland II for the occasion. We returned for Believeland III the following year.

Beautiful Later

CitiPond changed liquor distributors and needed artwork to replace the vintage alcohol posters that used to decorate Celsius, the heated outdoor restaurant and lounge at Bryant Park's skating rink in New York City. My brother and I each did two paintings, which were specifically designed for exterior display in extreme temperatures. To create a sense of cohesion and appeal to all ages, we agreed to focus on color, line, and shape as reflections on creative development.

Several days before the paintings went on display, Steve Jobs passed away. The title of the exhibit takes its name from Mona Simpson's quote at Steve Job's eulogy – “Fashion is what seems beautiful now but looks ugly later; art can be ugly at first but it becomes beautiful later.”

Roy Eaton

Mac had the honor of creating Benton & Bowles’ commemorative advertisement for Roy Eaton in 2010’s Advertising Hall of Fame induction program.

Roy Eaton is a piano prodigy who grew up in Harlem, New York, in the 1930’s. He first played Carnegie Hall at the age of seven and studied abroad, performing at leading cultural venues around the world. After serving in the military, Roy returned to the United States and was hired by Young & Rubicam Advertising in 1955 as a copywriter and jingle composer. He became “the first black at Y&R, and probably the first at any major agency, with a creative function on general accounts.”

Roy Eaton moved to Benton & Bowles in 1959 and worked there for 20 years, rising to Vice President, Music Director. His work shaped the growth and public perception of brands like Cheer, General Electric, Piels Beer, Beech-Nut Chewing Gum, Gulf Oil, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, Prell, Chemical, Crest, Yuban Coffee, Hardees, Honeycomb Cereal, Texaco, Chef Boyardee, Cool Whip, Harvey’s Bristol Cream, and many more.

Roy Eaton pioneered the connection, which is so common today, between music, musicians, and branding strategies. He introduced jazz to advertising, worked with Ray Charles on “America” for Black & Decker, and was the first to sign Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 to an advertising contract.

Roy is famous for his ability to use music to elevate the image of brands. Furthermore, his work for the Ad Council helped make the campaign against drunk driving one of the most effective social marketing campaigns in history.

As a young creative, Mac was deeply humbled to create this ad for Roy, and had the pleasure of meeting him at his induction into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Cottrell Brewing

Mac started working as a regional sales representative for the Cottrell Brewing Company in 2006. They brewed Cottrell’s signature Old Yankee Ale, and also served as the brewery and bottler for Trinity IPA and Narragansett Triple Bock. It was a great job.

From the very start, he learned that something was wrong with the way large distributors were treating local beers. Seemingly half of Cottrell’s established draft lines across the state of Connecticut had been replaced by Sam Adams, which was a Coors product. This made sense when you realized that our distributor was owners and run by Coors, so there were more incentives for their sales reps to replace local draft lines with corporate. It also made them easy prey.

Mac found that many of the local restaurants, bars, and stores that had previously carried Cottrell had been falsely told it was no longer available. This put him in a position to make quick friends. Advocating for a local beer with no artificial preservatives that tasted better, was fresher, and paired perfectly with local food was an easy win and fun side to be on.

We quickly re-established Cottrell’s foothold across the state, and strongly expanded the brand into Rhode Island. To complement these efforts, Mac designed many of our marketing and events posters to raise awareness and appreciation of our local beer. The brewery has continued to grow over the years and remains a humble and consistent point of excellence in the community.

Idol Hands

Idol Hands was created in 2008 by Mac Love as a meditation on loved ones afflicted with cancer and the fragility of life. The installation was comprised of accumulated found objects over several years, including x-ray images, a light-box, and two 8-foot-tall styrofoam hands Mac made from recycled packaging and shish-kebob spears.

The installation was first exhibited at the Velvet Mill, in Stonington, Connecticut. Various pieces and new compositions were later exhibited in New London, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island. All were later donated to charity.

Wonder-Space

Mac was hired to create the 16-page academic registration booklet for Wonder-Space’s 2009 computer, technology, and engineering summer camp at Rice University. All brand and marketing elements for the book were created from scratch except for the logo and photography. This represented a wholesale different approach to marketing and communication for the program.

Awareness of Wonder-Space and enrollment in their programs grew dramatically as a result of the vibrant and high-quality print production of the booklet. The served as a bridge to help parents, community, and the public recognize and appreciate the impact and value of an education in computers and technology.

Rosalita (Umbrella)

Rosalita (Umbrella) was painted by Mac Love in 2008, and is a continuation of Love’s Umbrella Series of paintings.

Expatriate

Art x Love was commissioned by BoomAgers to create a painting for their main conference room. Expatriate is from a series of paintings that was first explored in 2008. It was painted entirely with drip techniques over a holographic foundation. The painting’s colors and shapes shift with changes in light and perspective, effectively making it look unique to every moment and perspective.

BoomAgers is a leading New York agency dedicated to age-inspired innovation and marketing creativity. Expatriate reflects the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of the American spirit.

Introducing the Problem

Mac found this journal entry while preparing for a presentation on Why Art Matters that was scheduled exactly 10 years from the day he wrote it. The full text is provided here as reference.

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Introducing the Problem

“The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
– William Butler Yeats

I became aware of the problem when I was first asked “Is there such a thing as love?” It never occurred to me that others might not know, feel, or sense it. “Of course there is,” I would say. “If you believe in it then that means it can exist for someone else.”

Recently, my uncle confided in me that he is no longer certain that truth exists. It is often said that hope is a fruit born of youth, but my uncle’s cynicism surprised me. He is a thoughtful, intelligent, and well-travelled man. What could cause this crisis of faith? In a word: humanity.

Never before has mankind known so much and so little about the world in which it loves. Global communication and awareness has shaken the foundation of our trust, forcing new responsibilities and consideration upon those who were all too ready to accept their limitations. Now we fight and struggle for the familiar, desperately trying to slow the change that we know must come.

Throughout the fear and uncertainty, we are all trying to cling to something that we can be sure of: a job, a loved one, a country, an exercise, an excuse.

We live without a unifying theory for all that we now find around us.

My uncle shared his concerns with me. We talked about Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and Israel. We talked about the media, the American presidential race, Hannah Montana, Benazhir Bhutto, the surge, the internet, and marketing trends. We talked about whether or not the internet is safe for my thirteen year-old cousin and about why we have mass executions in our schools. We talked about the psychology of our country and the common American individual. We talked about immigration, the marketplace, mass media, and guerrilla advertising. We talked about art, terrorism, religion, and liberty. We talked about all of these things and more. Throughout it all I conceded his every concern and fear, but on the subject and nature of truth, I would not move. I could not. If I waiver on truth our world will crumble.

And yet, so the world crumbles around me. Our country was born from the people, by the people, and for the people – yet we continue to suffer as people always have. The exploiter has become the exploit. The abuser is now the abused. The revolution has become the institution and we are all to blame.

I talked to my uncle about truth and how I believed it to be a permanent and constant thing. He mentioned history and political spin while I chipped in preferential viewpoints and still, I maintained the position for the immutability of truth. This only aggravated his concern for the attainment of truth.

Before the discussion could spin any further, something in my uncle clicked without any justification. Maybe it was stubborn optimism, or the response on the tip of my tongue “the truth is not for us to have, but to participate into being.” Maybe it was the scotch.

The debate over the existence of truth ended there, but my thoughts turned to Yeats and the myth of reluctant leadership. What good do our thoughts or considerations do if they are not shared? How many eternal truths of life and the universe have drifted through our fingers as others fervently pursued mortal gains?

I am probably wrong about a great many things, but I realized that I needed to share my thoughts about these great mysteries, if only to brighten the path as it was brightened for me.

• Mac Love •
January 14, 2008

Stuffed Animal Portraits

Specifically designed for Noah's Restaurant's holiday art exhibit in 2005, the Stuffed Animal Portraits were an experiment to learn about the depth of subjective perception in the development of pictorial narrative. Each portrait began with a child painted on a sculpted surface, and was then transformed into an animal avatar.