This artwork is really my love letter to the neighborhood. My first live-work space when I moved to Cleveland from Kent was right next door in the Heller Building at East 22nd and Superior. At that time, the building had many artists and independent creatives living in it. I always found it special to be living, working, and printing my clothing line in a building with that history, once housing female textile workers. Also nearby, Zygote Press was huge in finding community and in my personal development as a printmaker and artist. Don’t get me started on the food in Asiatown, just the best! This pocket of Cleveland is rich spirit and forever holds a special place in my heart. It was an honor to create this piece, to blend my personal history with a larger view of the past.
The process for this mural at began in 2021 with Cross Country Mortgage’s Paint the District Artists Competition. There were 4 rounds of voting resulting in four artists creating proposals for their new headquarters at 2160 Superior Ave.
My concept was selected and further developed, with the final installation was completed in November of 2023.
Details
People, homes, history, and neighborhood flavor was my focus for this artwork. Using a combination of personal and historic photographs as well as maps very specific to the area, I created this composition to highlight the people, industries, arts, homes, and histories found here. It became a mashup of the old and the new, with a distinctly Cleveland vibe. Broadly, I wanted to include the garment and newspaper industries, AsiaTown, the many arts orgs and artists who moved in after industry left, and a variety of distinct buildings, signage, textures, and views from the area.
Specifically, I included:
historic maps of the immediate area with building usage and company names (1952)
three women playing instruments on Rockwell Avenue in Historic Chinatown (1955, Chinese New Year: Wanda Louie, Dorothy and Lotus Chan)
a woman working in Cleveland’s Richman Brothers Co. textile factoriy (1929: East 55th)
workers from the nearby Plain Dealer and their presses (1956: Irwin Kane and Tom O’Malley / 1937: stereotyper J.S. McGrath)
the old trolley streetcars that went down Superior Avenue (1933)
a visiting artist from Zygote Press sorting their artwork (2014: Clemens Reinecke)
single-paned windows, elevator mechanisms, and string lights from my live-work space next door to new CCM headquarters (2013-2015)
the Art Craft building, which housed so many artists for decades
a photo enlarger, as a nod the Cleveland Print Room
nearby homes, buildings, telephone poles, fences, signage, and street lights
an iconic rooftop water tower
faded garment company advertisements on the sides of buildings
speakers and amps from a nearby pawn shop, a nod to the many recording studios and musicians
view of downtown with Terminal Tower
textual elements from the historic photographs and garment patterns from that era
the old street bricks that paved Superior
a couple walking with their groceries
chopsticks, a nod to all the amazing restaurants and groceries in AsiaTown
my late geriatric beagle, my boy
Creating the Original
To first create the design, I pulled from my large arsenal of personal photographs of the neighborhood dating back to 2009, as well as historic photographs and maps from the area directly surrounding Superior Avenue and East 21st Street. I digitally bitmapped and transmuted these photographs for screen printing, and used somewhat of a collage method to lay everything out into the master design. A huge thank you goes to Cleveland Public Library’s Photograph and Map Collections for help locating the historic imagery.
This physical piece was created on a smaller scale (approximately 38’’ wide), then scanned and enlarged for the full scale 33.6’x13.5’ wide vinyl wrap.
In the early 20th century, Cleveland’s garment district was one of the largest in the country, second only to New York City’s. As a nod to the neighborhood’s concentration of garment factories, I created the artwork on fabric. I chose screen printing as the medium, and hand screen printed the fabric in my studio using water-based inks. I also incorporated some hand sewn elements and stitching into the artwork.
Process timelapse video of the making of the original physical artwork.
Enlargement + Installation
Once the physical fabric artwork was completed, it was scanned at high resolution before being enlarged and installed as a 33.6’x 13.5’ mural. Big thanks to Inflatable Images for the vinyl fabrication and installation.
Process timelapse video of the artwork’s enlargement and vinyl installation.
