STEVENSVILLE — The Historic Stevensville Arts & Entertainment District recently announced the completion of a vibrant road mural on Love Point Road in downtown Stevensville.
In collaboration with Queen Anne’s County, the project was made possible through a Maryland Department Housing and Community Development Community Safety Works Grant aimed to enhance pedestrian and road safety while celebrating the cultural identity and heritage of the community.
A portion of the grant was used to improve pedestrian safety at the intersection and serve as a captivating addition to downtown Stevensville. The mural, located on the right-hand side of Love Point Road from the stop sign at the corner of Main Street and Love Point Road to the stop sign at the corner of East Main and Love Point Road.
The road mural looks to draw attention to the beauty and history of the local area and entice visitor traffic to the downtown district in support of its business and artist community.
Taking frames of inspiration from the Historic Stevensville Arts & Entertainment District’s logo, art work was performed by Comacell Brown Jr., also known as Cell Spitfire, of Annapolis, a muralist and owner of Eye of Fire Designs.
Uniting safety with art, the road mural features vibrant strokes, bold lettering, and local icons of Stevensville’s history, culture, and maritime roots such as the crab and sailboat.
“I got started with my style of art by being drawn to using bright and bold colors since being a young boy. I have always had an attraction with bold color combinations and I started realizing how powerful using certain colors are, especially if you’re trying to set a particular ambiance or feeling,” Brown said.
Brown’s artistic approach matched with the bold format needed to be visible for the road mural.
“My style of artwork also uses a lot of shapes, sacred geometry with a detail on balance and placement to make sure things are spaced well and the bright colors make it easy to stand out. My trademark is using a lot of clean lines and making sure my linework is perfect,” he said.
Brown was glad for the opportunity to work with the Historic A & E District.
“The collaboration with the town has been fun and challenging dealing with managing traffic, moving barriers and getting business owners to see the vision, but ultimately I think everyone is pleased with the final results and I’m sure will benefit from tourism and at the least compliments,” he said.
The road mural’s grand reveal was scheduled during the community wide Kent Island Day, but the festival was canceled due to the weather.
“The Love Point Road mural project represents a collaborative effort between Eye of Fire Designs, Cell Spitfire, the Historic Stevensville Arts & Entertainment District, supported by the Queen Anne’s County Tourism Office and Maryland State Arts Council. It serves as a testament to the power of art in enhancing road safety and community identity,” according to a blog post from the Historic Downtown Stevensville website May 20.
“My favorite aspect of the project was getting it done to be honest. I don’t ever want my artwork to be an annoyance or disruption for someone else’s business operations so I just wanted the project to be as smooth as possible,” Brown said.
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