Stroke of Genius
Dirk Rozich blurs the lines between fine art and illustration. By Nancy L. Nierman
In order for Dirk Rozich to stand out and be competitive in the art world, he needed to produce something permanent, yet fresh, something different from the norm. With Norman Rockwell as his artist hero, Rozich set off to capture the essence of an illustration icon. What he found was his artistic voice through narratives that integrate his fine art and illustration. Like Rockwell, Rozich is able to switch between the two. More recently he has eloquently combined the two in his mural paintings. "There is a very distinct line between fine art and illustration and I think I blur the lines sometimes. Illustrators depend on tradition. There is always a narrative background," he says.
Rozich always wanted to be an artist. A precocious child, he started drawing at the age of 2 and even baffled his kindergarten teacher who said it was impossible for a child of 6 to have his ability. But that Christmas in 1986, he presented his mother with his first Santa drawing. In the 22 years since, he has produced over 15 more Santas that he keeps hidden from her each year until Christmas Eve.
At West Branch High School, Rozich majored in art. He credits two teachers with being essential in his pursuit as an artist: Susan Kahle, his elementary art teacher (now an administrator), and his retired high school art teacher, Carleen Prue. Both were mentors who have followed his successful career.
Rozich says he has been fortunate. During his college years at the Columbus College of Art and Design, he was the only senior from his school to exhibit in the student section of the Society of Illustrators Exhibition in New York. He had a chance to meet his heroes in the illustration world and they weren't too encouraging.
After graduation, Rozich headed to Chicago with the goal of becoming a top editorial illustrator. But his inspirations had been dulled by the negativism toward the profession. Those already in the business told him that the market was competitive and glutted with people coming out of school with high hopes of making it in the field of illustration.
Somewhat dejected, but not defeated, Rozich asked himself, "What can I do to make my work more permanent?" He decided on murals because of the permanence they have as opposed to expendable magazine illustrations. A large mural viewed every day has a lasting impact.
Rozich, who lived in Akron, Columbus, and Chicago, settled in Alliance where he was contacted by Paul R. Schreckengost, the nephew of artist Viktor Schreckengost who passed away in January, to do a mural which was dedicated Oct. 3, at the beginning of the Sebring Harvest Home Festival. Rozich was the last of six artists interviewed for the position. His vision matched the Schreckengost vision, and he was hired on the spot. Rozich spent 300 hours on research and sketches, and 700 painting hours, to create the 1,800 square foot mural, which is 60 feet wide and 32 feet high.
The mural depicts Schreckengost family members and prominent people of the Sebring community. Founded by George Sebring, the village is located in the Youngstown-Warren area of Mahoning County. A lot of research went into the people and places who created the history in Sebring. Schreckengost owns the corner of the block that the building sits on. He wanted the park around it to look like it goes on indefinitely. Rozich's work has a lot of dimension and was a perfect fit.
With limited black and white photographs from the 1940s, Rozich used the heads from the photos while dressing himself in various costumes to model for the figures he put in the painting. He put that last brushstroke on the mural at 3 o'clock in the morning of Sept. 20. The end result combines Rozich's interpretation of Viktor and Paul Schreckengost's vision. The mural's dedication attracted more than 1000 people.
The next project for Rozich will be painting the ceilings of one of the few remaining turn of the century mansions built by F.A. Sebring. It is being restored for a Inn & Spa by Lynne Biery of Louisville, who purchased the mansion nearly 10 years ago.
Recently Rozich became engaged, and it is apparent that he is as romantic as he is artistic. He took his girlfriend to Disney World and proposed on a boat while fireworks blazed overhead. Of course she said "yes." Nicole Wallin, a teacher from Munroe Falls, is familiar with the time Rozich puts into his work. Rozich says that not many women would be as understanding of the hours he has to put in to complete a mural. But she totally supports his art and often comes to the worksite to keep him company while he paints. Their wedding date is set for July 25, 2009. Along with Wallin, Rozich's parents, Paul and Cindy, continue to support his art, as does his older brother, Trent, a landscaper.
As Christmas approaches, Rozich is putting the final touches on his 16th Santa painting for his mother. She says that their home is like an art gallery with her son's Santa paintings and her collection of Santa figures, which she displays throughout the year. She is not allowed in her son's studio when he's working on the Santa painting, so it is always a surprise when he presents it to her on Christmas Eve.
Along with his Santa Clauses and mural paintings, Rozich is a full-time graphic and web designer for RMR Development in Dover, Ohio. Like Norman Rockwell, Dirk Rozich enjoys making statements with illustration and creating fine art, but he seems most at home when he puts himself on the line between the two and tells a story.
-From the December 2008 issue of Akron Life and Leisure
Capturing History
By Steve Herrick
At 28, artist Dirk Rozich has already made a lasting impression in Sebring. His recently completed 1,800-square-foot mural representing men, women and moments integral to the town’s history is a colorful complement to the natural landscape of Schreckengost Park.
Commissioned by Paul Schreckengost, nephew of noted artist and favorite son Viktor Schreckengost, the mural took Rozich more than 700 hours to complete. In addition to members of the Schreckengost family, the work also depicts a variety of well-known images, ranging from the pottery Sebring is known for to the school district’s Trojan mascot to the park’s archway and fountain.
“It was a very challenging assignment,” the Alliance native says. “Since many of the 22 individuals in the mural have passed away, I often had to rely on black and white photos to get the faces right. I was worried that residents wouldn’t recognize the people I was drawing.” Those fears, however, proved groundless, as passersby converged to watch him work.“I was gratified that the people who walked up and looked at my painting knew exactly who was in it,” he says.
A full-time graphic designer by day, Rozich did much of his work during off-hours in marathon sessions that often lasted from dusk to dawn. Creating the images, he admits, did get tricky: After drawing the faces captured in the photos, Rozich –– along with his fiancée Nicole Wallin –– dressed in clothes reminiscent of the 1940s and ’50s, the time period the work represents. Then, he placed his camera on a tripod and set the timer and the couple would strike the poses he had designed for the mural.
Rozich is proud of the end result.“I’m honored,” he says, “to have had the opportunity to do this. It’s the painting of a lifetime –– something that will outlast me.”
Next on the drawing board: Images of the vineyards of Tuscany that will grace the Frank A. Sebring Mansion, a historic landmark that’s being transformed into a country inn.
“I am,” says Rozich, “living my dream.”
-From the March 2009 issue of Ohio Magazine
Theater Of Dreams
"Looks like a real safe, right? Not quite, It's the trompe l'oeil mastery of a 26-year-old artist." - Instore Magazine
Alan Rodriquez commissioned Dirk Rozich, a 26-year-old artist from Alliance, OH, to create an 8-by-12-foot mural depicting the vault he had envisioned. The result? A 1920s-style model with a Batman/Gotham City aesthetic. And enough three-dimensional verve to really pop off the wall. The mural has become the focal point of the store as well as the Julz brand image. "It's so realistic that when people see it they think it's an authentic vintage bank vault," Rodriquez says. "In addition to its artistic merit, it serves as a psychological symbol of the store, promoting safety and security and the value of its products and services. And it also delivers a message of creativity, which is what we hope we represent in our products." - An interview between Julz Jewelry store owner Alan Rodriquez and Instore Magazine's December 2007 issue
Downtown DaVinci: Young artist captures Sebring's history on a wall
By DAN KANE
The Repository - October 4, 2008
SEBRING- Spend 700 hours on the same corner in the center of a small town and you will meet a lot of the locals.
Dirk Rozich found this out while painting an expansive mural on the side of Ashton's 5 & 10 Store in downtown Sebring.
"I've had hundreds of people stop and talk. People yell things from their cars. Everyone's been very positive and excited," Rozich, 28, says. "It's been a nice ego boost."
With amusement, he shares the question he's most often been asked by passersby often while standing atop a scissors lift, mere inches from the mural, in paint-spattered clothing with paintbrush in hand:
"Are you the guy who's painting this?"
DOWNTOWN FOCAL POINT
The just-completed mural at 15th Street and Oregon Avenue was the brainchild of Paul Schreckengost, a 1959 graduate of Sebring McKinley High School, who owns three aerospace-related companies in Southern California.
Having already paid for a gazebo on a vacant corner lot in downtown Sebring, he envisioned a mural on the adjacent wall that would celebrate both the history of his hometown and Sebring's prominent Schreckengost family.
"It's outstanding. Dirk captured everything I was hoping for and he is super to work with," Schreckengost says about the finished mural. "I interviewed six guys for this project, and I chose Dirk because of his sketches and his concept of depth. I wanted a three-dimensional look to it."
The majority of the people in Rozich's mural are members of the Schreckengost family, including Paul's father and mother, aunts, uncles and his grandparents.
The most famous is Viktor Schreckengost, a Cleveland-based industrial designer whose creations included everything from furniture and dinnerware to trucks and industrial equipment. Paul is depicted in the mural with a Murray bicycle his uncle designed.
Viktor died this past January at age 101, but not before paying Rozich three visits at the mural site. "For 101, he was so very sharp," Rozich recalls. The elderly artist told Rozich that the Jazz Bowl - a famous deco piece he designed for Eleanor Roosevelt - he is depicted holding in the mural was too small and needed to be resized. Rozich followed his wishes.
Paul Schreckengost paid to have the corner lot resodded and the gazebo repainted in time for the mural's dedication this past Friday. He also had a 600-watt, full-spectrum spotlight installed to illuminate the mural at night.
"People ask me, 'Why do you come back and do this stuff?' " says Schreckengost, who spends only about 30 percent of the year in Sebring, at his grandparents' former home, which he has completely restored. "I'm just happy to be from here, and have the work ethic, and know the people."
12-HOUR DAYS
The elaborately detailed, 30-by-58-foot mural has been an all-consuming project for Rozich, who already has a full-time job at RMR Development in Alliance as a graphic designer, web designer and illustrator. He worked on it last year from mid-July through mid-October, then resumed work this May, putting the finishing touches on it two weeks ago.
"It's the most I've ever been paid for a painting," Rozich says, providing nothing more specific.
After a full day at RMR, Rozich would work on the mural from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., using electric spotlights after dark. On weekends, he would work 10- to 12-hour days. He painted the mural on the brick wall using acrylic paints in 2.6-gallon buckets, working from the top down, utilizing a lift provided by Coon Caulking & Restoration of Louisville. Before starting the massive project, Rozich sought advice from Eric Grohe, who painted three enormous murals in downtown Massillon.
"The biggest challenge was the faces," the artist says of the 21 portraits included in the mural. "Some came quickly, some I'm still not completely happy with." He worked from a range of photographs, many of them black-and-white, to piece together the grouping. To get the various body positions correct, he and his fiancee posed for photographs which he painted from. Rozich inserted a subtle self-portrait into the mural; that's him, seen from the back, flying an Ohio flag kite in the background.
In addition to the various Schreckengosts captured, the mural includes former Sebring mayor Daphane Cannell, who was largely responsible for Sebring's downtown restorations; Don Eckelberry, a famous bird artist from Sebring seated at an easel, and Sebring Fire Chief Jim Cannell, astride a toy fire truck designed by Viktor Schreckengost.
Depicted in the background are the seven potteries from Sebring's turn-of-the-century pottery heyday. The archway features the Trojans football logo from Sebring McKinley High School. The yellow Chrysler Sebring 6 is one of only 25 that were manufactured in Sebring. The B-17 bomber is a tribute to Sebring resident Ray Crewson, who flew the plane during World War II, was a POW in Germany, and who befriended Rozich as he painted the mural, providing him with many of the photographs he used.
The brick mansion in the mural, located just a few blocks away on Ohio Avenue, is in the process of being converted into a lavish bed and breakfast. Rozich has been hired to paint murals on its ceilings.
FINALLY FINISHED
After finishing the giant mural with his small self-portrait, Rozich gave it two different clear coatings to protect his painting from UV rays, weather and graffiti.
"It will eventually fade but that will take 50 years," the artist says. "It should outlast me."
Sebring to unveil mural Friday
By KEVIN HOWELL
The Morning Journal - October 2, 2008
SEBRING— After over two years and 1000 hours of planning and painting, 1999 West Branch High School graduate Dirk Rozich’s mural at Schreckengrost Park in Sebring is ready for its dedication, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Friday at the corner of Oregon Avenue and 15th Street. The dedication will kick off the village’s second annual downtown Harvest Festival. Commissioned by Paul Schreckengost of the Viktor Schreckengost Foundation in the spring of 2006 to paint the mural, Rozich said he spent around 300 hours researching and sketching the mural before he began to transfer the image he designed onto the wall in the park.
Manipulating the scene in a computer program and projecting it onto the side of the building for tracing, he began work in July of 2007, broke for winter in October, and continued from mid-May 2008 until completion in September. Depicting 22 individuals influential to Sebring’s history, most of whom are of the Schreckengost family, the 1,800 square-foot mural is more of a community project than the smaller images he is used to creating, Rozich said. “Creating a piece of work that the community can accept as their own is one of the main reasons I took on this project,” he said. “It is no longer my painting, but the community’s. And that is more rewarding than any sum of money.”
In addition to the 22 individuals, the mural also depicts the village’s seven original potteries, the F.A. Sebring Mansion Inn and Spa, a 1912 Chrysler Sebring 6, the park’s grand archway and fountain, the Sebring school district fighting Trojan mascot, a B-17G Flying Fortress dedicated to World War II veteran Ray Crewson, the village’s official seal and two pedal vehicles, a baby buggy and a murray bicycle all designed by Sebring native and world-renowned industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost.
Interacting with community members has been interesting, too, Rozich said. “I had lots of visitors while I was working,” he said. “One of my biggest fears was that people wouldn’t recognize the people I was drawing, so to have people constantly telling me what a great job I was doing was encouraging.”
As an editorial illustrator and web and graphic designer, Rozich’s career has been mostly creating small pieces for clients that are lost to him once sold, a problem avoided with the Schreckengost Park mural. “One of the hardest things is letting smaller pieces go, but this will always be here, close to home,” he said. Creating the image was not easy, though, requiring sketching full bodies of real people, 90 percent of whom were already deceased, according to Rozich. But with the assistance and patience of his fiancee, Nicole Walin, Rozich completed the sketches by using photos for the heads and snapshots of himself in a suit for the males and Walin for the females.
The Schreckengost Park Mural is Rozich’s seventh mural, but only his second public one. The other mural can be seen at the Julz jewelry store on Market Street in downtown Canton. He will shortly begin work painting ceiling murals at the Sebring Mansion.
Schreckengost mural in Sebring ready to be dedicated on Oct. 3
By GAYLE AGNEW
The Review - September 26, 2008
The mural that drew crowds to Schreckengost Park in Sebring to watch its progress is finished. The process began in the spring of 2007 when the base or site for the mural was prepared.
Artist Dirk Rozich was commissioned by Paul R. Schreckengost to paint the 1800-square-foot mural on the south exterior wall of the Ashton's 5 &10 owned by the Ramon and Doris Scott family that faces Schreckengost Park.
In the early 2000s, when Daphne Cannell was mayor, the village purchased the lot at the corner of 15th Street and Ohio Avenue that formerly housed a gas station. Cannell designated that parcel as Schreckengost Park. Paul Schreckengost designed the park and the large white gazebo, funding the project and maintaining it. "When I did the gazebo in the park I had a concept of a mural on the wall," Schreckengost said. "I started sketching and interviewed six guys; I wanted three-dimensional and I liked Dirk's work." Schreckengost told Rozich what he envisioned and who he wanted in the mural. "Vik (the late Viktor Schreckengost) did a sketch of ideas for the mural," Rozich said. "Paul told me what he wanted and I orchestrated it with those drawings, ideas and a list of all the people he wanted in it along with some of Viktor's inventions." Rozich said the finished product is a combination of his and Paul's designs.
According to Schreckengost, his grandparents, Adda and Warren Schreckengost, came to Sebring in 1902 from Kittaning, Pa., at the request of the Sebring brothers. They built a house on Indiana Avenue; the family home that Schreckengost bought back and restored and he and his family members live in when they are in Sebring. Warren and Adda had nine children, six of whom survived " Don, Paul G., Viktor, Pearl, Lucille and Ruth. Adda and Warren, along with their six children, are depicted in the mural. Various members of the family, along with people who were instrumental in the development of the town or have historical significance, are also depicted.
The late Daphne Cannell, who Schreckengost described as the person mainly responsible for the renovations to downtown Sebring, is depicted behind the bench where his grandparents are shown. Seated in the car, a 1912 yellow Sebring Special, are depictions of the late Renee Schreckengost, (wife of Paul R.); Betty Schreckengost, (wife of Paul G. and mother of Paul R.) along with seven other children; Dr. Gene Schreckengost, (wife of Viktor); and Hazel Schreckengost, (wife of Don, mother to Gary).
"I started out by projecting my drawing on the wall and painted it on the wall with a brush," Rozich said. "It took a better part of a week, working three to four hours a night." He started in July of 2007 and worked until the middle of October of 2007. This year, he resumed his work the middle of May and just completed his work at 3 a.m. on Saturday.
On Sunday, assisted by his fianc's father, Denis Walin, an automotive painter from Akron, they put two different kinds of clear coat on the mural " five coats total " to preserve the painting. The mural is Rozich's interpretation; the seven potteries in the background were made to fit the mural.
All the photographs he had to work from were black and white and from the photos he only used the faces. For instance, none of the people in the mural were actually photographed in those positions. To accomplish that, Rozich dressed up in a suit and photographed himself in the positions he needed for the mural. His fiance, Nicole Walin, was the model for the females portrayed in the mural. "We did that in order to get the correct folds in the clothing, the shadows and highlights," Rozich said.
Sebring resident Ray Crewson provided many of the photographs for Rozich to reference. The only people that were painted from an actual photograph were Pearl, Lucille and Ruth Schreckengost, from a photo taken in 1947 by Crewson. "Ray grew up with Don Eckleberry, who later married Pearl," Rozich said. "He shot and provided a lot of reference photos. Most of the head shots are from Ray." In honor of Crewson, an airplane is shown in the upper right-hand corner of the mural; his B17 World War II light bomber that was shot down in 1944. Crewson bailed out of that plane along with two other survivors. Three others died.
Crewson's initials are on the plane, "R.C.," along with a logo " a white "L."
The F.A. Sebring Mansion, now known as the Sebring Mansion Inn and Spa, owned by J. Lynne Biery, is also on the mural. "Projecting the mansion took about six hours," Rozich said. "Once I started, I couldn't stop until I was done."
The numbers 503, 502 and 505 appear randomly in the mural. They are in honor of Sebring police detective Mark Lowman, Sgt. William Faudree and patrolman Mike Porter. "They checked on me while I was working and I appreciated that," Rozich said.
Rozich has been compared to master painter Michelangelo who always hid himself in a painting. "There were a couple people in the background in the park, one is a male figure with his back to the park, flying a kite," Rozich said. "It's me." His signature logo appears on the lower left-hand side of the mural, and on the right side, at the bottom, is Rozich's actual signature with the words, "For mom and dad and all of your years of support."
Long-time friend of the Schreckengost family, Karen Poorbaugh, is on the left side in the background, depicted as a woman pushing her grandson, Walker, in a Murry-Go-Round Stroller, one of Viktor Schreckengost's designs. Seated in a metal pedal car-fire truck is Sebring Fire Chief Jim Cannell. "Who better to put in there but our fire chief," Schreckengost said with a smile. Originally there were six people in the mural, but it expanded to include 22 people. Paul R. Schreckengost is depicted in the mural standing with Viktor's bicycle, also a design for Murry. Schreckengost lives at the family home in Sebring about three months a year. He also has homes and businesses in California and is an inventor and artist in his own right. Asked about his loyalty to his hometown, "I was lucky I had a good growing up (in Sebring)," Schreckengost said. "The schools gave us a good education and we learned a good work ethic that I still have."
Local muralist secures the Jewelry
ON THE BEAT
By DAN KANE
The Repository - June 24, 2007
Shimmery merchandise notwithstanding, the new downtown Canton jewelry store called Jülz is worth a visit for its wall-spanning, eye-fooling mural of a bank vault by Dirk Rozich.
Jülz owner Alan Rodriguez "told me he wanted a symbol of quality, something that was really secure," Rozich, 27, says. "He had this idea of a big safe door, something heavy out of Gotham City."
Rozich, a 1999 West Branch High School grad, found his inspiration from a vault door located in the basement of the mayor's office in Alliance, which he photographed. He did a precise line drawing, scanned it into his laptop computer, then digitally projected it onto the wall of Jülz.
The mural, which was completed in time for the store's May opening, took Rozich six weeks and almost 380 hours to complete. "A lot of the murals I do are designed to be viewed from 25 feet away," the Alliance-based artist says. "This one, someone can walk right up to it and put their nose on it. It had to look crisp and highly detailed."
A graduate of the Columbus College of Art & Design, Rozich already has embarked on his new mural project, a whopper. On the brick side wall of Ashton's 5 & 10 store in Sebring, Rozich will paint a mural 30 feet tall and 55 feet wide.
"It will depict the village of Sebring's history," Rozich says. "At the turn of the century, Sebring was a booming town with a huge business in china pottery." His mural will depict 14 influential Sebring residents of the era, original pottery companies and a 1916 Chrysler Sebring, which was built there.
Rozich consulted with artist Eric Grohe, who painted multiple murals in downtown Massillon, about painting on an exterior brick wall. He will begin drawing the mural onto the wall next week, working at night using a projector.
He was hired for the project by the Schreckengost family of Sebring, whose most famous member is Viktor Schreckengost, sometimes referred to as the father of industrial design.
Viktor, now 100, met with Rozich a week ago. "He looked at my sketches and he loved them," Rozich says. "He was very appreciative." Viktor, his wife and other family members will be depicted in the mural.
Rozich's art-school degree is in editorial illustration, but he prefers murals. With illustration, "you spend all this time on a small painting and it's life is only as long as until someone turns the page," he says. "A whole community can enjoy a mural for decades and generations to come."
Local artist pursues novel takes on Santa
By DAN KANE
REPOSITORY ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
The Repository - December 13, 2007
Since he was a little boy, Dirk Rozich has been making paintings and drawings of Santa Claus for his mother, an avid Santa collector. His earliest Santas showed unusual promise for a child so young. Now a successful commercial artist based in Alliance, his holiday paintings have the polish of magazine illustrations and Hallmark cards. In both their visual style and their storytelling themes, Rozich's most recent Santas bring to mind Norman Rockwell, an artist who inspires him.
An exhibition of Rozich's Santa paintings is on view through December at Jülz, a jewelry store at 220 Market Ave. N in downtown Canton.
"Our home is like an art gallery," says Dirk's mother, Cindy Rozich of Alliance. "I have Santa Clauses clear through the house." Her collection of Santa figures, which "number in the hundreds," and pencil Christmas tree are on display year-round.
The new Santa painting that Dirk gives her annually on Christmas Eve "is always a secret. I'm not allowed in his studio when he's working on it so I have no idea what it will be. "Sometimes it brings tears when I open it up. Tears of joy."
Her emotional favorite of the Santa paintings is a portrait Rozich painted of her father, Ronald Brunner. Its title: "Your Santa Since '53." Also in the show is a charmingly simple Santa painting that Rozich did as a kindergartner in 1986.
Asked about his Santa inspirations, Rozich, 27, says, "I have tons of ideas. I have a list at home. I want to do an Egyptian Santa and a samurai Santa."
The Santa paintings begin with a detailed drawing, then he goes in with a watercolor wash from which he daubs away highlights. He then paints the piece with acrylic paint. His final step is an oil-paint wash, which gives the finished paintings their burnished look.
In addition to his Santas, Rozich does other illustrations, logo design, graphic design, Web site design and detailed wall murals. The precise trompe-l'oeil mural of a bank-vault door at the rear of Jülz was painted by him. He is painting a multifaceted historical mural on the side of Ashton's 5 & 10 store in downtown Sebring. Measuring 30 feet tall and 55 feet wide, it should be completed in June. A West Branch High School grad, he graduated in 2003 from the Columbus College of Art and Design.
Art and design is clearly Rozich's calling in life. "When he was 2, he drew robots and colored all the time. He wrote his name when he was just barely 3," his mother says. "In kindergarten, he drew a skeleton for Halloween and the teacher didn't believe he did it. The teacher said there was no way a child of his age could have that ability."
