Standing on East North street in Kalida most people see a grocery store, Oscar Velasquez sees an unfinished work of art. "To me when I see a building I see a canvas and automatically start to see what could go on it." Said Velasquez.
His work is all over northwest Ohio. His latest masterpiece will be a time table and story of the history of Kalida much like this finished piece of work in Ottawa. Residents can still have a piece of their family history in Kalida as a part of the work, but overall Velasquez is able to run with it and let his artistic genius take over. "It's a lot easier for an artist to just put something together rather than have them have somebody tell them that they want certain things in it, but that's good too because you always have to put something that people want but it's still your own way of creating it." he said.
This canvas is about 100 feet long and sixteen feet tall so Velasquez says one scene wouldn't have the impact that this one will. He said, "you know you can have a hundred people standing in front of it. Each one could be looking at different sections of it, different years."
This piece of work will be seen by thousands of people and he enjoys seeing other people take joy in his art work, but most of the excitement for Velasquez comes at the beginning. He said, "it makes me feel good that they're enjoying it. I don't think I get the rush or the thrill of it as much as when I first see the wall and when I'm doing the painting. This is going to be one of the nicest one's that I've ever done."
