Former professional football player is going to the Super Bowl - as an Artist!!
Vivache Designs is excited to announce that superstar artist and Chief Creative Officer, Michael Che Romero, will have a mural in the Super Bowl!
Vivache Designs is excited to announce that superstar artist and Chief Creative Officer, Michael Che Romero, will have a mural in the Super Bowl! Collaborating with local artist Eve Fowler, Michael brought to life a spectacular ombre sunset mural with the powerful quote by Gertrude Stein: “the difference is spreading“. This is an homage to the ever-changing landscape of Inglewood. As a high school and collegiate football player, Michael Che Romero always had a goal to play in the NFL. He came close when he won a national title playing arena ball with the Tri-Cities Fever. Never did he think that as an artist he would have the chance to have a showcase mural for the Super Bowl.
In creating this mural, Che faced many challenges. Southern California is known for its glorious weather and that was supposed to be the case when Che started the process. Little did he know there would be some natural issues he would come across including a volcanic eruption in the Pacific near Tonga which would cause a tsunami warning for Southern California. This caused some unexpected rain that water stained the mural. Next, the Santa Ana winds decided to have some severe gusts causing delays on the project (you can’t spray paint when there are 80 mph gusts). The winds also impacted the taping process - which Che had to redo more frequently than ever. Finally and perhaps our most fond hurdle: the hundreds of seagulls that would fly overhead literally pooping on the artist as well as the mural. Seagull's waste is very acidic and denatures the paint. The painting had to be touched up nearly every other day. It was, undoubtedly, a scene from Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. Due to the realistic look of the sunset backdrop, Che made himself believe that the seagulls thought they were flying towards an actual sunset.
Other, more humanistic challenges included the mural’s placement - being in between two buildings. Further, the viewer sees it from the ground up, and every single vantage point of the mural shifts at different points of the day, demanding absolute precision and perfection. The effect of the colors is pretty remarkable because of where it is placed: there is a glow at night that reflects off of the building across the way, creating a very bright, peaceful glow that in many ways is unexpected. On the final day, once the mural was painted to its perfection, Che started to seal it. He was using a matte sealer that dried as a semigloss, making the painting look wet and full of streaks. This ruined the entire painting. Che had to drive 2 hours to source new topcoat material and worked tirelessly to drive to completion. In the end, the mural took almost 20 days to complete, working 10 hours days, with the final push being 44 hours of non-stop all night, all day work.
The mural spans 78.5’ long x 11‘ high and it is 10 feet above the ground. It is likely the largest ombre ever created. Michael Che Romero can now officially title himself the ombre king given the size and complexity. Nearly 24 colors for this mural were custom made by Che with over 17 layers of paint. The tremendous amount of technique needed to create this contiguous ever flowing sunset design is amazing. For more information about Vivache designs or Che, please contact us. We are here for all your art and design needs.