Kevin Blaushild engaged Art x Love to create a large mural for his apartment. After further discussion it was clear that the greatest and most enduring value would come from a large scale painting. Music and yoga are driving passions for Kevin, so we worked on developing a concept with elements that would compliment his past, present, and future aspirations. Seeking a cosmic-level impact, Kevin trusted Mac’s recommendation of a holographic painting.
Symphony
In 2016, Mac was commissioned by The Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation (HWDDC) to create a new chalk mural underneath Cleveland’s Main Avenue bridge for Ernst & Young. Since 2014, Mac had been creating 10 ft. tall chalk murals at this location across from the main entrance to Ernst & Young Tower, and HWDDC was able to leverage them to raise funds and additional support for their community programs and events.
Ernst & Young’s mural was inspired by brand elements from a range of their marketing materials, and paired with a musical composition to invite multi-sensory consideration and appreciation.
Do you recognize the piece of music?
Rally Together
Major League Baseball TV (MLB TV) wanted to create a time-lapse video of artists painting murals in each of the ALCS and NLCS cities for the televised broadcast of the 2016 playoffs. Art x Love negotiated the location for the Cleveland Indians mural, and created a design that could be completed in 4 hours.
Located in Cleveland's Public Square throughout the playoffs, the "Rally Together" mural went viral as part of a World Series tickets promotion. The painting currently resides with Carlos Carrasco, a former Cleveland Indians starting pitcher and great human being.
Diamond Deli
The Diamond Deli is one of Akron’s most famous sandwich shops and eateries. Their menu is legendary, and on any given day of the week you may find a smoothly moving line of people stretched out the door and around the corner. They’re that good.
In 2016, Mac created The King of Diamonds for the back wall of the dining area. Based on the overwhelming response the painting received, the owners asked if Mac could do a drawing of their business for a new t-shirt. He sat outside one fall morning and created the sketch that became this ink drawing. Although the art was never used for a t-shirt, it is prominently featured opposite the register and helped inspire our creation of the Akron on Deck playing card set to support local businesses and artists through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Water Garden
The Schrocks wanted a painting to replace the dark print in their dining room. We reviewed their aesthetic preferences, discussed their aspirational environment, and explored several concepts before arriving at what would become Water Garden. The painting was created in Akron and designed specifically to transport, refine, and install on site in Naples. The Schrocks love it, and have found that the complementary colors and lighting greatly enhance the feeling and movement throughout their home.
King of Diamonds
The Cleveland Cavaliers won their first NBA championship the year our family moved to Akron. To commemorate the occasion, we created an iconic painting to honor Lebron James and his dedication to the Akron community. King of Diamonds was gifted to Akron's Diamond Deli so that local residents could share in this unforgettable celebration.
Believeland
As Cleveland prepared for the Republican National Convention, we felt it was important to revitalize the Believeland murals and celebrate local pride and identity in the wake of Cleveland's NBA Championship. Believeland III was specifically designed for Cleveland's RNC guests and was quickly embraced on social media and featured on national news and political channels.
Following the RNC, the murals continued to be a popular backdrop for social media profiles, wedding photography, and was also prominently featured in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 80's Night player intro video, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's music video for Coming Home. With coverage from local media channels, we promised to return with a baseball mural if the Cleveland Indians could continue their winning ways. They did, and our Roll Tribe mural caught the attention of Major League Baseball, prompting our opportunity to create the Rally Together mural for MLB's American League Championship Series.
5th Street Arcades
5th Street Arcades needed a mural that could engage passersby and bring people inside, so Mac created Kaleidoscope Garden as an interactive painting with colors and shapes with shift with changes in light and perspective. It is an iconic part of 5th Street Arcades, and a frequent inspiration for selfies and children playing. Business has boomed at 5th Street Arcades since Kaleidoscope Garden was installed in 2016. If you visit it, take a selfie, follow @artxlovellc (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn), post the picture and tag #kaleidoscopegarden you will automatically entered for a chance to win one of Mac’s Kaleidoscope Bloom paintings.
Water Taxi
Cleveland Metroparks engaged Art x Love to create a mural wall that would shield construction of the new water taxi station on Cleveland’s Flats East Bank. The mural needed to reinforce the brand, raise awareness of the water taxi, and provide an aesthetically pleasing distraction from ongoing construction.
Development of the Water Taxi mural began in October of 2015, and construction finished a year ahead of schedule due to unseasonable warmth. Since the mural was no longer needed, we volunteered it as a public art solution for Edgewater Park, which was beginning to show signs of its age.
The Water Taxi mural was created as one continuous image across 32 separate 4 ft. x 8 ft. panels that would connect to form a circle. Key panels of the mural were disassembled for display across Edgewater Park.
Following installation, public feedback was highly positive and usage of the park increased annually, with many residents and new visitors expressing their appreciation of the vibrant artwork. In the years since, Edgewater Park has grown dramatically with a world-class beachfront recreation center and performance space.
Solstice (Was)
This two-piece residential commission was specifically designed for the meditation and music room of the client’s house. Each painting was richly layered with the colors, signals, and textures to inspire a great sense of peace, excitement, and discovery in the viewer.
The Solstice paintings began with a homework assignment for the client, to more clearly understand to colors, energies, and textures that best resonated with them. Based on their input, Mac began developing rich layers of oil paint to play with.
No brushes were used in the creation of these paintings, which lends a degree of mystery and tension in the mark-making and exposed layers beneath the surface. Solstice is intended to reflect the internal and external seasons of our summer and winter exchange.
Westfield Waves
Westfield Bank's executive leaders met for a strategic retreat to discuss the interests and aspirations that would define the bank's future plans for growth and innovation. One executive saved the post-its from that strategic summit and commissioned a painting that would capture this landmark moment in the bank's history. The original post-its were used to create the foundation of the painting, which was then developed using repeated text from the source material. The final painting is entirely composed of marks made from the words, thoughts, and ideas expressed during the strategic summit. The finished painting was temporarily displayed in Westfield Bank's Cuyahoga Falls branch, and now permanently resides in the patron's home. To this day, it inspires fresh points for recognition and revelation, capturing the bold and exciting spirit that marked the occasion.
Awesometown II
A client commissioned me to create a sequel to my Awesometown holographic painting, only to realize several weeks later that they wanted a different painting from the same series of work. Awesometown II was for shelved for several months to focus on the new work.
The following year, we moved to Ohio and I completed the painting as my first entry for the Akron Art Prize, which was prominently displayed at the Red Door Gallery, which sadly is no longer in existence. Awesometown II was later donated to the Boys & Girls Club of the Western Reserve and sold at auction to raise funds in support of their efforts.
