Off the Wall

Street artist Victor Ving wishes you were here — here being wherever his paint can takes him. During his "Greetings From" tour, Ving and photographer girlfriend Lisa Beggs, a Canton native, have been traveling the country in a vintage-striped recreational vehicle to produce postcard-like public art in various cities. Their September stop in Ohio City resulted in a "Greetings From Cleveland" wall mural at Chatham Avenue and West 25th Street.

"Graffiti got boring after a while," says the 31-year-old Ving, who draws inspiration from his collection of 4,000 vintage postcards. (The placement of the Terminal Tower in the "V," for example, resembles a 1940s version.) "Every time I paint one of these, it's a new image."

With assistance from local artists Alex Tang, Victor Savage and Alan Giberson, Ving incorporated our pro sports teams logos, the nearby West Side Market and other iconic Cleveland images into the mural. "I love the water, so we painted the Coast Guard lighthouse on Lake Erie," he says. "I like A Christmas Story, so we did the house from the movie."