Youngstown’s regional culture magazine for loving life and living

*hell on wheels PAGe 16*‘free’ up the radio waves PAGe 7

noKIDDInG ARoUnD PAGe 11

Yo TAKe

A JoKe, PAGe 9 aLL aBoutIMAGeIT’s

sPRInG 2010

[The Yo* Magazine]GdYoungstown’s regional culture magazine for loving life and living

KINGS of theRING

*the survival issue, spring 2009

Local wrestlers fight to survive inside the ropes

VexFest sends

shockwaves

through city*

Urban artwork*

Local artist draws

on Youngstown

experience*

[The Yo* Magazine]Gdgrit in their blood*the identity issue, fall 2008

Youngstown’s regional culture magazine for loving life and living

Using the tough Youngstown image to get ahead

Race to the finish line: did skin color affect Youngstown’s vote?

18 theyomag.com

In a back room of an art studio on Federal Plaza, Youngstown artist Ray Simon is hard at work. With a steady and sure hand, he carefully cuts a black matboard frame with an X-acto knife and places it atop one of his many prints, which have been seen by everyone from President Bush to Katie Couric. Simon’s inspiration is simple — growing up in Youngstown.

“Our paintings are everywhere,” said Simon proudly. “Every year, the president passes out my paintings at the police memorial in Washington, D.C.”

Simon has made prints from a Kelly Pavlik tribute to an “Operation Iraqi Freedom” print that features the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue, a little Iraqi girl waving an American flag, a jet and a group of soldiers and tanks.

With the Pavlik “Forged in Fire, Iron, and Steel,” tribute painting, Simon said he wanted to replicate the environment that Pavlik grew up in.

“I wanted to show the tough roots of Youngstown,” said Simon, who has worked out of his Federal Plaza studio since 1989.

One year, Simon said he got the surprise of a lifetime when he received an e-mail from one of President Bush’s agents explaining that Bush wanted the “Fields of Freedom” painting for the White House.

“Fields of Freedom,” one of Simon’s favorite paintings, shows an eagle with a light red, white and blue eye flying over a field that has a lightly airbrushed flag flowing over it.

All of his hard work takes time, though. Simon

Yo’-inspired art By Samantha Pysher

carefully researches the basis of the painting, such as the history behind the story and a four-week airbrushing frenzy begins.

“All of my artwork has a reason,” Simon said humbly. “We love to tell stories with paintings.”

Youngstown artist Bob Barko Jr. also draws inspiration from the Yo’.

“I get so mad when people say bad things about Youngstown,” Barko said. “The truth is that we have a great place, and I want to show that.”

One of Barko’s most recent creations, a brightly painted traveling mural 24 feet wide by 6 feet tall called “Here in Youngstown,” depicts a visual history of Youngstown, from Idora Park to the the Chevrolet Centre. The mural took over 100 hours to complete.

“I designed the traveling mural to a scale that could be produced onto a building,” Barko said.

Although he didn’t major in art, Barko found a way to leave his signature on YSU turf. Though it took him 10 years, he painted every single fire hydrant to look like a penguin.

Recollecting his past prints, and leaning back in a 1950s style office chair, Barko said he released his first print, “Youngstown Skyline,” in 1996.

Diligently drawing with colored pencil and ink for his smaller prints and paint for murals, Barko spends 20 hours on average per piece after extensive research.

“The people that live here have a great nostalgia for the city,” said Barko, “and we have a great history.” *

Artists tell Youngstown’s story

Simon

Barko

spring 2009 23