BEDFORD — On Friday, a driver turned right from 16th Street onto H Street, saw artist Mark McKenzie working on a large mural and yelled, "Looks great!"
McKenzie beamed.
He heard a lot of comments like that while painting the new mural on the east side of the Times-Mail building. Filled with images of the limestone industry, local landmarks and references to the area's space and sports success, the colorful artwork is the first of Bedford's Stellar Communities projects to be finished. A dedication ceremony is planned for Tuesday morning.
"It's been a real pleasure," McKenzie said after the painting was complete. "I would say there's been 1,000 people who yelled their support (during the week he worked on the mural).
"I was so happy to be able to do something for my community."
McKenzie, 37, hasn't lived in Bedford for years, but he has deep roots in Lawrence County. He grew up here and attended local schools until age 16, when he moved to the Indianapolis area. After graduating from New Palestine High School, he went on to the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, then to Chicago, where he makes his home and his living in art.
He credits his mother, Elizabeth (Dunihue) McKenzie, for pointing him toward art. Before her retirement, she taught art for four decades in Lawrence County schools.
"She was a big influence," he said. "She didn't push art on me." But as he progressed in school, he realized his skills and interest were in art.
"I needed to follow that channel," he said. "It was really just being exposed to that as a kid on a daily basis. I picked it up real quick."
He comes back home a couple of times a year to visit relatives. And when his mother learned the city and the Times-Mail planned to put a mural on the once-white wall of the newspaper building, she thought of her son in Chicago.
"She told me about it, and it was right up my alley," he said. "I made a proposal. The (mural) committee made a few changes, which I was happy to do. I wanted it to be a totally community-involved mural."
The Times-Mail and the city had representatives on that committee.
"The Times-Mail is happy to participate in helping make the Stellar Community program a success," said Times-Mail Publisher Mayer Maloney. "We supported the original application to the state because we believe downtown revitalization is of great importance. The mural is just one of the many projects changing the face of Bedford."
The artwork incorporates several references to Bedford and the larger Lawrence County community. At the center is a rainbow and a limestone quarry.
"The whole focus of the mural is the quarry, and the stones are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," said McKenzie, who paints under the name "Mac Blackout."
Various other references to the community's heritage — from the space shuttle to a basketball to rolling hills to a water tower symbolizing city's manufacturing sector — surround the central quarry.
At the top is a patriotic reference to the stars and stripes of the United States flag.
"It's really just an all-American town," McKenzie said.