Greetings from Toledo, OH!  We happened to arrive at the Toledo wall the same exact time the lift was being delivered and just as our main contact, John Eikost was rolling up to the wall as well.  John initially reached out to us before we left New York when we started our Kickstarter campaign. He stayed in touch throughout the first year we toured the USA and helped make this mural a reality 6 months later. We cannot thank him enough for all his support and making this mural happen as a true community effort!

After priming the wall, we took a quick day side trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH as the paint dried. Little did we know, we would be back to paint a mural for Sandusky a few years later!

Back in Toledo, we started the wall with the locals a bit confused by our presence.  When priming the wall, one of the most memorable quotes was when a neighbor came out and said "Ya'll drove all the way from New York to paint the wall white?"  The location of the mural was on First and Main St. in East Toledo which is a neighborhood that isn't really known for public art.  We had the honor of helping pioneer these efforts and hopefully open up more opportunities for other local artists.

We recently watched the Sign Painter's documentary and learned about the late Keith Knecht who was a local Toledo based sign painter and the 8th original member of the letterheads.  His brother Bruce Knecht stopped by the wall, and we had the honor of checking out Keith's original portfolio.  We also learned that his old studio was just a block away from the wall we were painting.  Using an image from Keith's original business card, we decided to paint a little tribute to him on this wall.

Special thanks to Brad/Lindsay who hosted us in the East Toledo neighborhood, Doug & Mark at Skyworks for donating the lift and last but not least, Dan Steingraber for providing us with the wonderful canvas!  There's also way too many other people to list who helped make this project happen.  We hope that we did a good job representing Toledo and look forward to crossing paths again with everyone we met during our time here.

John was able to help us crowdsource some additional funding for the mural via social media.  A local 9 year old comic book creator named Holden Folk heard about the mural project and decided to donate $50 from his change jar that he saved from selling his comic books.  To show our appreciation, we decided to incorporate his comic superhero "Super Pig and Bacon Boy" into the mural.  This ended up being the most fun image to paint on the wall and meant the most to us. 

Lisa’s friend Spencer is from Toledo and stopped by to say hello during the mural. She actually ended up buying a school bus herself and converting it to live full time on the road. It was great to catch up with her a few years later in Ojai, California.

Press:

Toledo Blade - Comic creator, 9, becomes mural’s young superhero

Letter Guide:

T –  Toledo downtown skyline, Ohio flag

O – Toledo Skyway bridge, Craig Memorial bridge, Nickel for the East Toledo, Super Pig and Bacon Boy comic by Holden Folk, Glass blowing furnace

L – Original Tony Packo's Cafe,  tribute to local sign painter Keith Knecht, Toledo Mud Hens

E – Jeep Wrangler,  Toledo-Luas County Public Library , Heist Tribute, University of Toledo

D –  Toledo Museum of Art , Col. James M. Schoonmaker at the Great Lakes Museum

O – Toledo Zoo, Metroparks of Toledo

Year: 2015

Mural Size: 14'H x 30'W

Location: 120 Main St. Toledo, OH 43605

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