Local

Howland native brings owners’ vision to life with mural for Past Times Arcade

By Kelcey Norris Mahoning Matters

September 10, 2023 4:00 AM

Past Times Arcade’s new mural was created by local artist and graphic designer Lydia Tarleton, a graduate of Howland High School as well as Youngstown State University. Kelcey Norris Mahoning Matters

Suppose you haven’t visited Girard’s newest attraction of over 300 pinball machines and over 150 classic arcade games. In that case, it won’t be hard to miss with an eye-catching mural pointing guests in the right direction.

Past Times Arcade’s new mural was created by local artist and graphic designer Lydia Tarleton, a graduate of Howland High School and Youngstown State University.

Owner Rob Berk commissioned Tarleton for the mural, depicted on the back of the building on North State Street housing his collection of pinball machines, facing drivers traveling west into Girard on US-422.

“I’ve always been into the arts ever since I was little and felt like when I was going into college that was the only career path for me before I narrowed it down to graphic design,” Tarleton said. “I went to school with some of [the Berk] daughters and had done some commissions like small, personal commissions in the past... I had taught one of their daughter’s art lessons a couple years back. So when they were thinking of putting some paint on the outside, I think that I was just kind of the first person that popped into their head.”

Bringing vision for Past Times Arcade mural to life

Tarleton said she was excited to hear their vision for the mural and be able to bring that to life.

“They had a lot of ideas,” she said. “So I gave them a few drafts and some had the logo, some didn’t have the logo, some had Pac-Man and some didn’t. But then the last one that they ended up picking was kind of my compilation of everything that they had said, all in one so that’s how it came into reality. They spit-fired a lot of elements like Pac-Man and the pinball, of course.”

Tarleton explained the design for the mural was first projected onto the building overnight before being painted with final coats during the daytime.

“Once it got dark, I have a little LED projector and we were able to get far enough away from the wall to project the image on the wall. Then I just take a little skinny brush with paint and trace around it to get the outlines, so the image was up there ready for me to fill in color with the next day,” she said.

This is the largest mural she’s been commissioned to create. Visit Tarleton’s website to check out more of her multimedia artwork.