Mural Artist Hopes To Evoke Joy Of Childhood
October 27, 2020 at 3:12 a.m.
Mural Artist Hopes To Evoke Joy Of Childhood
By Jackie [email protected]
Illustrator Marc Eckel finished “The Bubbles” mural Oct. 20.
“I think I spent probably 130, 140 hours actually on the wall and it’s probably about 30 hours of prep that happens before that in the studio before it even gets out of the building,” Eckel said. He painted the mural over the course “of a few weeks.”
Eckel said he owns the building for his business, Blue Spaghetti Graphic Design and Illustration, 123 W. Center St., Warsaw, so “we were working through the city to do a facade situation, to fix up the facade outside and part of that was putting up the mural.”
Eckel said a person can get a grant per building per year. “So the facade grant helped paint the back and the side and a lot of the bricks along the side were deteriorated and falling out, so we repaired the brick work as part of that grant,” he said.
The mural itself took inspiration from Eckel’s son, Andrew.
“It was just a picture I took of my son, and I thought it was kind of fun,” he said. He passed the idea of having their son on the side of the building by his wife, Juli.
For a while, Eckel said they were wondering what to put on the side of the building and came up with that. Eckel said the decision didn’t take too long. He had a couple different options and laid them out and showed his wife, and she liked the option of their son blowing bubbles, which was taken approximately two years ago.
“The thought is it’s nothing confrontational, nobody’s going to be offended, I hope. It’s just fun, it just takes you back to your childhood - just playing, having fun, something, you know, relaxing,” Eckel.
“I’m typically not a muralist. I’m an illustrator, so I illustrate book covers and children’s books and I do portraits and illustration commission paintings. The mural is not typically what I do, but I can do it,” Eckel said.
He did the mural outside of Rex’s Rendezvous and did a mural over the course of two months in Texas.
Before doing the mural, the wall had to be repaired and “a lot of plaster work had to be done” and it had to be sanded down. The base coat had to be painted on.
“Then, there’s just the matter of everything is designed on the computer. It’s drawn full size on the computer. It’s printed off. It’s tiled. You tape it all together, put it out there and transfer the drawing on the wall and paint it,” Eckel said.
For anyone who would like to see videos of the Eckel painting some of the murals he has done, or see some examples of his illustration work,, they can visit www.bluespaghettillc.com.
Eckel said he hopes people just enjoy the mural.
“Life is so weird these days, especially with COVID and everything. Everybody’s panicking about things. It’s a mural, just relax and chill out and have fun and just enjoy simple things, you know,” he said. “I give my son a thing of bubbles and he goes until they’re gone. He loves it. It’s just sort of a retreat from the craziness of everything.”
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Illustrator Marc Eckel finished “The Bubbles” mural Oct. 20.
“I think I spent probably 130, 140 hours actually on the wall and it’s probably about 30 hours of prep that happens before that in the studio before it even gets out of the building,” Eckel said. He painted the mural over the course “of a few weeks.”
Eckel said he owns the building for his business, Blue Spaghetti Graphic Design and Illustration, 123 W. Center St., Warsaw, so “we were working through the city to do a facade situation, to fix up the facade outside and part of that was putting up the mural.”
Eckel said a person can get a grant per building per year. “So the facade grant helped paint the back and the side and a lot of the bricks along the side were deteriorated and falling out, so we repaired the brick work as part of that grant,” he said.
The mural itself took inspiration from Eckel’s son, Andrew.
“It was just a picture I took of my son, and I thought it was kind of fun,” he said. He passed the idea of having their son on the side of the building by his wife, Juli.
For a while, Eckel said they were wondering what to put on the side of the building and came up with that. Eckel said the decision didn’t take too long. He had a couple different options and laid them out and showed his wife, and she liked the option of their son blowing bubbles, which was taken approximately two years ago.
“The thought is it’s nothing confrontational, nobody’s going to be offended, I hope. It’s just fun, it just takes you back to your childhood - just playing, having fun, something, you know, relaxing,” Eckel.
“I’m typically not a muralist. I’m an illustrator, so I illustrate book covers and children’s books and I do portraits and illustration commission paintings. The mural is not typically what I do, but I can do it,” Eckel said.
He did the mural outside of Rex’s Rendezvous and did a mural over the course of two months in Texas.
Before doing the mural, the wall had to be repaired and “a lot of plaster work had to be done” and it had to be sanded down. The base coat had to be painted on.
“Then, there’s just the matter of everything is designed on the computer. It’s drawn full size on the computer. It’s printed off. It’s tiled. You tape it all together, put it out there and transfer the drawing on the wall and paint it,” Eckel said.
For anyone who would like to see videos of the Eckel painting some of the murals he has done, or see some examples of his illustration work,, they can visit www.bluespaghettillc.com.
Eckel said he hopes people just enjoy the mural.
“Life is so weird these days, especially with COVID and everything. Everybody’s panicking about things. It’s a mural, just relax and chill out and have fun and just enjoy simple things, you know,” he said. “I give my son a thing of bubbles and he goes until they’re gone. He loves it. It’s just sort of a retreat from the craziness of everything.”
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