The David C. and Lura M. Lovell Foundation Fund Mural

2018
Adams & Michigan Ave

Toledo, Ohio

PIECES TO PEACE

This 20 ft x 20 ft outdoor mural project focuses on the use of mosaic art to engage the homeless population and provide needed access to mental health care, healing and enhanced continuity of care within the Toledo Community. This community-based mural is a vehicle for social change by empowering participants, transforming environments, and contributing to reducing the stigma of mental illness.

 What better way to highlight mental health and homelessness than tell a story with art? 

The head of this mural is fractured, symbolizing the mental health disease in the brain; the figure represents a homeless person with a fractured life; the eyes humanize the piece, they could be anybody’s, the window overhead with light and hope shows that all is not lost, and finally the trees symbolize that there is room for growth.

The Lovell Foundation provided grant funding for a collaboration between myself, The Toledo Streets Newspaper and A Renewed Mind. As a group we worked for more than a year to create a mural that visually speaks to mental illness and how that can lead to homelessness.

 This project made possible by:

The Toledo Community Foundation
The David C. and Lura M. Lovell Foundation Fund
Lucas County Mental Health & Recovery Services Board
A Renewed Mind
Animal House Glass
Toledo Streets Newspaper