One of the problems with the outdoor murals that have cropped up in and around Cleveland’s city center in the past several years is that they’re open to the ravages of the area’s notoriously changeable weather: heat, cold, rain, snow.
Local husband-and-wife artists Gary and Laura Dumm, whose work, both individual and collaborative, has been shown at many venues around town — created a 60-foot mural called “Love Letter to Cleveland” back in 2013, which was installed on the wall of the old Orange Blossom Press Building on West 25th Street in Ohio City.
The mural, drawn by Gary and colored by Laura, as is their practice when they work together, showed such landmarks as the nearby West Side Market, the Free Stamp, the Guardians of Traffic on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge and the Hulett Ore Unloaders, plus a variety of local landmark personalities including Dorothy Fuldheim, Jesse Owens, Ghoulardi, Dennis Kucinich, Jane Scott and Michael Stanley. And yes, these noted cat lovers managed to work in an image of their famous cat Bubba.
The mural became tattered by the elements and was eventually removed, and the Dumms started to GoFundMe page to pay for a reprint. Now it’s found a new home, safe from the elements, at the Cleveland State University Michael Schwartz Library’s Cleveland Memory Project n the third floor of Rhodes Tower, where it was installed in mid-July on two long hallways leading to the library’s Special Collections.
The mural is available for viewing any time the library is open.
2121 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115
2121 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115