Up, Up and Away: Latest Old Hilliard mural meant to be a photo op for visitors
The number of outdoor wall murals in the Old Hilliard district is continuing to grow with the completion of a fifth mural on the wall of Ross Realtors, 3988 Main St.
Artist Sarah Hout was putting the last touches on the mural June 19.
Hout, a resident of Eastgate, just west of Bexley, said she designed the mural based on the vision Ross Realtors wanted for it.
“Our idea behind it was a play on the (Pixar animated) movie, 'Up' since we are a real estate company,” said Michelle Kennedy, managing broker for Ross Relators.
As such, the mural depicts a pastel-colored array of hot-air balloons lifting houses, similar to the house with its elderly man and young boy, carried on an adventure in the film.
“We were also looking to give the community a fun place to stop for a photo while in Old Hilliard,” Kennedy said.
Ross Realtors moved to the Main Street location in September 2020 from an office on Cemetery Road, near Municipal Way.
Hout used spray paint rather than brushes to render the mural.
The mural of hot-air balloons and houses is on the outside wall of Ross Relators, facing the intersection of Main and Franklin streets in Old Hilliard.
The mural joins three others in Old Hilliard, including a train-themed mural on the back of Otie’s Tavern & Grill, 5344 Center St., completed in 2020, and a mural on the side of the Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center, 5425 Center St., finished last year.
Each of those murals was commissioned and funded by the Hilliard Public Arts Commission.
The mural at Ross Relators, while approved by the public arts commission, was not paid for by the commission, according to Kelly Daniel, chair of the commission.
Another mural, also approved by but not funded by the commission, was completed two years ago at DiCarlo’s Pizza, 4142 Main St.
The first mural approved in Old Hilliard by the commission is that of a sunflower on the Madison Street garage of Ed and Kelley Daniel.
But all five murals, and another outside the Westwood Field House, 3932 Brown Park Drive, as well as 10 traffic signal boxes throughout the city, are possible because of the public arts commission.
Kelley Daniel painted the sunflower mural on her Madison Street garage in 2009 but was made to cover it because its multi-colors violated building codes in the Old Hilliard district.
Eventually, the Hilliard Public Arts Commission was created in 2018 to establish policy and encourage public art.
The sunflower, which had been boarded over, was the first piece of artwork the commission approved, followed by numerous murals, both publicly funded and private, since 2020.
The public-funded murals, such as those at Otie’s and the Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center, are funded with proceeds from the “Percent for the Public Art” fund established by City Council in 2018.
The program sets aside 1% of the cost of the eligible capital improvement projects undertaken by the city for the acquisition of public art, but not to exceed $200,000 per capital improvement project.
The next publicly funded project is vinyl wrapping another set of 10 traffic signal boxes with sunflower-themed vinyl in August, Daniel said.
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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Latest Old Hilliard mural meant to be a photo op for visitors
