Music: Appreciate, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
The artwork features actual MetroHealth staff and includes 68 individual staff members, 1 working dog (Hope, the security dog), and 4 patients in the mix.
This mural was first created as a smaller physical piece, with a spray painted rainbow gradient and traditional screen printing. I paneled together paper into 100 inch long stretches for each wall. These were scanned at high resolution, stitched digitally with additional digital elements overlaid for the final iteration. This was then enlarged to 120 feet in total and wrapped in vinyl from floor to ceiling in the hallway.
During installation, it was great witnessing multiple staff see themselves in the mural for the first time (unbeknownst to them ahead of time). This mural occupies the very long staff entrance hallway and security area at the new Glick Center, where all staff enter and exit each day. It was made as a welcome and thanks to them specifically, as the public and patients would never be in this space. The mural was intended to acknowledge and honor their hard work and dedication, especially after the long and challenging pandemic years.
I was excited when approached for this job - to create something special for these workers. I immediately thought of my mom who is a longtime direct caregiver. It’s hard, taxing, emotional and physical work that is often unappreciated and undervalued in our culture. I was happy to work with MetroHealth in centering their team in this big way.
Music: Day 8, Ta-Ku
After the smaller physical artwork was scanned and prepped, the fine folks at Inflatable Images handled the 120’ x 10’ enlargement and vinyl wrap of the interior hallway. I love the scope and that it is also visible from outside the building through the big glass windows.
May 2023
Shortly after the mural wrap was installed in November 2022, the fire marshal ruled there wasn’t enough easement in this hallway for Metro’s security setup. The result was a cutout section to push back a small cubby area to open up the space, meaning a large section of the mural (featuring multiple staff and patients) was gone.
After bouncing around ideas, it was decided this was the best solution was to reprint and install this section of mural, pushed back into that space with painted navy accent on the surrounding walls.
