YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Mike Egan’s unique art is highly recognizable in the Youngstown area.
His colorful Expressionist works – which feature skulls and bones – were displayed at a McDonough Museum exhibition last year. They also grace the popular apparel sold by Westside Bowl.
A new film will shed more light on the artist – who isn’t as dark as his work might indicate.
“Death: The Life of Mike Egan” is a selectee of the Youngstown Film Festival, which will take place May 30 at Penguin City Brewing Co. It’s one of 28 short films that will be screened at the event.
“Death” was made by Doug Helmick, a Struthers native and Pittsburgh resident. It’s only 12 minutes long, but it gives Egan – a Pittsburgh native who now lives in the Mahoning Valley – plenty of time to explain his life and his art.
Making art has been Egan’s full time career since 2017.
But before that, he worked for several years as an embalmer and funeral director in Pennsylvania.
The film project was launched a few years ago, when Helmick approached Egan with the idea.
The filmmaker moved to Pittsburgh in 2009 to attend the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and remained there after graduating. Today, he is a freelance film editor and also plays in Plasmid, a punk rock band.
“Death” is the first film Helmick made since his days as a student.
He did not know Egan, but was familiar with his art.
“I was looking for an interesting story to tell, and [Egan] was very interested in the idea of it,” he recalls.
Making the film brought Helmick back to his hometown.
“When I learned that Egan lived outside of Youngstown, that was just really cool to me,” Helmick says. “Tying it to the Youngstown aspect made me feel like I was in high school again, when my friends and I would shoot home movies, and it was just so much fun.”
A segment was shot at Tod Homestead Cemetery in Youngstown. Helmick worked there when he was in high school – his father is a superintendent of the cemetery. “Everything kind of connected back for me,” he says.
Footage was also completed at Egan’s home and also the Wickyards, a former funeral home on Youngstown’s north side that is used as a music venue.
The film was released in August 2025. It has been screened by 11 festivals, including the Cleveland International Film Festival; and AmDocs and the OCS Film Fest, both in California.
Viewers who only know of Egan’s art might initially assume the film is dark in subject matter. But it is actually a platform for Egan to explain himself in an introspective way.
“Mike’s a very nice guy, caring and thoughtful, very easy to talk to,” Helmick says. “He tackles the idea of death and dying, but he sees that as a celebration of life… of living life and helping us live our lives. He uses vibrant colors and hues, and it’s very playful. His art is very approachable, and it’s about something that we all have in common.”
About the Artist
Egan says he is very pleased with the film.
“I think it turned out amazing,” he says. “People just keep discovering the film and I think it’s really cool that people are finding my artwork through it. I’ve had several people send me messages saying, ‘Hey, man, I just saw your movie, and it was really cool.’ And there are a lot of people that have been followers of my artwork for many years, [who say] this was the first time they were able to make a connection with me on a personal level and understand me outside of the art.”
Egan’s art has become connected to the Youngstown area – and almost synonymous with Westside Bowl. It is on a mural at the Mahoning Avenue rock venue and is also on the T-shirts, hoodies and other apparel sold there.
Visual art can be found throughout the bar-bowling alley-music hall, and co-owner Nate Offerdahl is always looking for more.
Egan recalls how he connected with Westside Bowl.
He had made some positive social media posts about the venue after his first visit there, which spurred Offerdahl to check out his art.
“Nate just messaged me one day and said, ‘Hey, would you ever be interested in doing some artwork here?’,” Egan recalls. “And I said, yeah, for sure.”
Offerdahl says he is attracted to Egan’s art for several reasons.
“I love that it’s simple, bold, bright, easy to understand and direct,” he says. “So it’s very impactful, and it fits the aesthetic of our place. And getting to know the artist, on top of how eyecatching it is, is also why I like it.”
Egan’s art is about to become even more visible. He will soon start work on a mural across the street from Westside Bowl, at the Good Vibes thrift store building, 2714 Mahoning Ave. The mural, which is being commissioned by the store, will cover the entire front wall of the second story of the building.
Egan’s career keeps him busy. He recently finished an artist residency at the University of Akron, where he helped teach a course in mural making. He also did an exhibition there and painted a mural.
Next up are exhibitions in Virginia, Iowa, Chicago and Seattle.
He is also a commercial artist and is designing a poster for a film and music festival in Maryland.
Egan also sells art, apparel and figurines on his website, mikeeganart.com.
The Film Fest
The Youngstown Film Festival has taken place at various locations over the years.
This year will be its first at Penguin City. It will take place in the concert venue at the downtown brewery.
The fest will only screen short films this year, but all of the selected works – including the full-length films – can be viewed at home by ticket buyers, who will be given Internet links, according to Adam Michael, the Valley-based filmmaker who is also the director of the festival.
“We could only do one day this year, so we made the decision to not show any feature-length films,” he says. “If we showed three feature-length films, it would take up the whole day.”
The fest received more than 300 submissions this year – the most ever, according to Michael. The films came from producers all over the country.
Michael cites the growing popularity of the film fest to “The Liars of Black Mountain,” which was submitted last year by actor Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “‘Signs”). “The Liars” starred Nolan Gould (“Modern Family”), who made a personal introductory video for the Youngstown fest.
Breslin has a strong interest in producing films and helping smaller artists develop.
The Youngstown Film Festival will start at 11:30 a.m. with a red carpet photography session. Films will be shown in four blocks from 1-9 p.m., with the awards ceremony following the final film.
Attendees will receive a lanyard at the entrance that allows them to leave and return at any time during the festival.
Tickets are $30 (VIP, $50) and available at filmfreeway.com/YoungstownFilmFestival/tickets.
Pictured at top: Mike Egan in his art studio, surrounded by his works.
