The Allen County Bicentennial Celebration Board announced that 15 artists have been selected to paint murals on sculptures throughout the county as part of the “I Am Allen” project.
Bryan Ballinger’s studio is filled with sculptures, from miniature to large, and they all depict characters Ballinger himself created – a fox in crocodile shoes, a toad with a homemade banjo, and various critters in wigs.
Ballinger was selected as one of 15 artists to create the murals, but the statue they are painting is the same – a six-foot-tall fiberglass “IN,” with the “I” in the shape of Indiana.
The sculpture will be located in Hoagland in southeast Allen County, and the mural created by Ballinger blends a part of the town’s history with his own personal style.
“I just love characters, I love cartoons, I love comics, I love children’s picture books. So I think if I put my heart into it and it’s really what I love to do, it will have an honesty and it will resonate with people.”
The mural depicts a cow on a train pulling a stack of pancakes past a farmer’s frog. Ballinger says he was inspired by things about the town of Hoagland, such as the pancake breakfast, when designing it.
Ballinger has written and illustrated several children’s books and is the artist behind the “Blue Birds” mural in downtown Fort Wayne. The sculptures are scheduled to go up in October.
The full list of the 15 artists selected for the murals:
- Theopolis Smith III, Brewer Park in Fort Wayne
- Terry Ratliff, Downtown Fort Wayne
- Julie Wall, Pufferbelly Trail in Fort Wayne
- Matthew Plett, Fort Wayne Airport
- Jordan Kurzen, Saint Joseph Parish
- Bonnie Andrews, LaRez District
- America Carrillo, New Haven
- Debera Kuntz, Zanesville
- Mitchell Egly, Woodburn
- Erin Salyers and Jared Applegate, Leo-Cedarville
- Jeremy Stroup, Huntertown
- Susanne Rhee, Harlan
- Tim Parsley, Grabill
- Jeff Aldo Anderson, Monroeville
- Bryan Ballinger, Hoagland
“Public art enlivens public spaces and creates a cultural destination. An educational project like this helps us tell the story of Allen County and engage an audience as visitors walk from business to business in our communities,” said Alexandra Hall of AH Public Spaces Consulting in a press release announcing the murals. “Indiana is full of talented artists and we look forward to seeing what the creatives of this community do with these sculptures.”
According to officials, the project is funded by Hanning & Bean, the Allen County Board of Commissioners, the City of Fort Wayne, NewAllen Alliance, BF Goodrich/United Steelworkers Local 715, Knight Foundation, Barrett & Stokely, Visit Fort Wayne, St. Joseph Township, the Fort Wayne Airport Authority and Greater Fort Wayne Inc.
