PEACH WEEKENDER | ART

Finishing touches put on city’s largest mural

‘Fort Industry,’ Toledo’s largest mural at 6,000 square feet, covers two sides of Toledo’s Parks Maintenance Building. The ‘dazzle camouflage’ pattern is based on a tactic used by the United States and Great Britain on battle ships during the World Wars.

The area’s largest mural, at 6,000 square feet, was completed Friday and is likely to be seen by more people than any other Toledo work of art. Best vantage point is on I-280 near downtown between the Greenbelt Parkway and Manhattan Boulevard.

With three intense colors (purple, lime, and midnight blue) and a pale one (sky blue), its patterns are based on “dazzle camouflage,” an intriguing tactic used by the United States and Great Britain during the World Wars in which battleship exteriors were painted in bold, geometric patterns that made it confusing for a distant enemy to figure out the type of ship, its size, speed, and heading.

“A goal was to take that large, flat building and add some depth and dimensionality,” said Nathan Mattimoe, art in public places coordinator for the Arts Commission.

The $130,000 project of the Arts Commission is called Fort Industry and covers two sides of Toledo’s Parks Maintenance Building. In the coming week, a clear coat will be painted and the piece is expected to look good for 10 years, Mattimoe said.

Muralist Molly Dilworth of Brooklyn, selected from 74 applicants, was paid $20,000. Preparation involved repairing cracks and joints, installing new gutters and downspouts, and priming the surface, done by the Dependable Painting Co. Large concrete barriers were installed along the edge of the freeway.

Mural designs are usually projected onto a surface at night, but that wasn’t possible because the building straddles the freeway, so patterns were measured, drawn, and taped off. Painting began last month and two coats were applied from scaffolding and boom-arm lifts by a small local crew — Jefferson Nelson, Dave McIntyre, and Karrie Kern — joining Dilworth.

The project was paid largely by $70,000 from Toledo’s One Percent for Art program, which has set aside a penny for each dollar the city spends on construction since 1977. The program is administered by the Arts Commission.

■ Save the date: Art on the Mall will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 26 on Centennial Mall at the University of Toledo’s Main Campus. The event and parking is free. Information: 419-530-2586 and ansley.abrams@utoledo.edu.

■ River of Many Faces is a photographic celebration of the Maumee River, the largest watershed in the Great Lakes Basin. Art Weber’s images depict all seasons of the 136-mile-long river, from its origins in Fort Wayne, Ind. to its mouth at Maumee Bay. The show’s in the National Center for Nature Photography at Secor Metropark, 10001 W. Central Ave., July 3 through Sept. 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Sundays.

From Prizm Creative Community:

■ Unconventional Beauty, photographs of animals, people, and landscapes by Brooke Limpf, continue to be on view through Aug. 31 at Starbucks at Levis Commons, 3145 Levis Commons Blvd., Perrysburg.

■ Nature Fills Up Our Senses, work by Perrysburgers Christine Deemer and Susan Henke Goslak, can be seen through the end of the month in the Bowling Green Country Club, 923 Fairview Ave. in Bowling Green. Deemer uses acrylics to paint ocean and sky and Goslak creates woodcuts and etchings of oceans and trees.

■ As the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit exhibit winds down (the last day is July 12), the Detroit Institute of Arts will open Monday with a $6 deal on tickets. There will be a mariachi band and cake (it’s Frida’s birthday). Museum admission is $8; $4 for ages 6 to 17. Information: dia.org and 313-833-4005.

Send items for News of Art two weeks before the event to tlane@theblade.com.