On the top of a 60-foot construction crane, Dean Davis was being immolated by the summer sun.
Working his way around his 8,000-square foot canvas at the corner of Madison Avenue and North St. Clair Street in downtown Toledo, Davis mounts a delicate performance: He knows that his audience isn’t just waiting for the finished product, they’re watching his every brushstroke. His art isn’t merely his finished mural, but the performance of public painting.
Replete with a costume (his signature paint-bespeckled pants), a stage (an industrial work platform), and his props (paint spray cans), Davis performs his mural-painting act no matter the heat, only stopping when sudden rainstorms risk sending his crane crashing down…