YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Patrick McGlone started getting calls in January from people who just saw his new mural about football star and Youngstown native Frank Sinkwich.
It was good to hear – even though he finished the mural two months prior. What was new is that a building to the east of it was demolished. That suddenly made the Sinkwich mural very visible to people driving westbound on Mahoning Avenue on Youngstown’s west side.
Many people have seen McGlone’s art, and not just the Sinkwich mural at 1708 Mahoning Ave.
The owner and operator of Overall Paint Co., a Youngstown-based commercial outdoor art company, McGlone’s work graces public and private spaces throughout the Mahoning Valley.
Some of his best-known pieces include a mural of the Greek god Apollo on a downtown building. It’s immediately visible to motorists as they cross the South Avenue bridge.
He also painted the massive “You Can’t Break a City Made from Steel” mural on the side of Southern Park Mall.
McGlone has also painted dozens of commercial signs on the walls of private businesses. The list includes Bar Bruno in Boardman, the Mac Haus in Canfield and Penguin City Brewing in Youngstown.
He will soon start on a mural on the west side of a building at 5625 Mahoning Ave. in Austintown that will become the newest Frank’s Cafe location.
“That one will be seen by thousands of people every day,” McGlone said, because anyone leaving Austintown Plaza, Walmart or the soon-to-open Meijer store and heading east will drive past it.
Commercial signs on the side of buildings make up the lion’s share of his business. McGlone pointed out that such signs are very effective and cost-effective, especially if the business owns its building.
They’re also a form of free advertising for his own business as a sign painter.
Although he loves the creative control that comes from the artsy murals – such as the Sinkwich one – that he occasionally is commissioned to do, business signs are McGlone’s bread and butter.
“I am more of a commercial artist,” he said. “I do this for the business side of it. If a client says they want me to paint XYZ, I will do it. And I don’t have to stick to my style. It’s cool to be involved in art, but I’m geared toward commercial art.”
But a few more artsy McGlone murals could be sprouting up around the Valley soon.
Nick Chretien of the Economic Action Group – which commissioned the Sinkwich mural – has compiled a list of more than 200 walls in the area that would be good sites for public art.
“We will try to complete one or two this summer,” McGlone said.
They are already considering a site in downtown Youngstown, and a mural for it that is based on an idea that Chretien came up with.
“You know the scene at the end of the movie ‘Goodfellas,’ when [the character played by actor] Ray Liotta picks up the newspaper on his front step? Nick wants to extrapolate that scene into a mural,” McGlone said. “It tells a cool story in a cool way. But it doesn’t scream mafia.”
The Sinkwich mural also tells a story, and a true one.
“I never knew about him,” McGlone said. “A Heisman Award winner from Youngstown.”
The goal of the EAG was to educate the public about the football star, which meant McGlone had to do some research.
“We came up with the idea of making the mural a trophy case that showed aspects of his life,” he said.
A Chaney High School graduate, Sinkwich attributed his competitive drive to playing football on the streets of the West Side.
He went on to become a star at the University of Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to an undefeated season as a freshman, and would go on to break multiple Southeastern Conference records. He received the Heisman Trophy in 1942, becoming the first foreign-born recipient of the award.
His legacy was cemented in 1943 when Georgia retired his number 21, making it the first jersey ever retired by the school.
The mural was commissioned to add vibrancy to Sinkwich’s old West Side neighborhood and promote placemaking through public art.
“Public art holds the power to visually enhance neighborhoods while celebrating a past resident and preserving its rich history,” Chretien said in a news release.
Pictured at top: The Frank Sinkwich mural is located on the side of a building on Mahoning Avenue on the West Side.