By Zach Spicer
With determination on his mind, Kyle McIntosh completed another mural.
In July 2024, Kourtney Ivy, a human resources representative at Nippon Steel Pipe America Inc. in Seymour, contacted him about taking on a small mural project.
The company had remodeled one of its break rooms, and Ivy knew McIntosh had done several murals in the area and thought his work would brighten up that space.
“I’m always interested in exploring ideas for future mural projects, so I gladly agreed to have a sitdown meeting with the team,” said McIntosh, owner of Beauty from Ashes Tattoo Parlor in Crothersville.
During that meeting, they discussed options and ideas for the mural.
“To be honest, they had one main idea: ‘We want to bring some color into this break room, give ‘em something different to look at,’ so that’s where I came in,” McIntosh said.
He later had a second meeting and tour and took a lot of notes and pictures.
Then he was ready to take the vision of the client and incorporate it into a work of art.
“I take that and just dig a bit deeper than the surface,” he said. “What message do they want to convey? What’s the audience and how does it include them? Once I have these key points and several others, then I sprinkle my own little style and twist on it, and that’s how I create the idea.”
Ivy said the thought behind the mural was to include some key machining processes that happen at Nippon Steel, a material supplier of various sizes and shapes of carbon and stainless steel tubing to the automotive industry.
“Something that makes the employee feel good about the process they complete within Nippon Steel,” she said.
Processes included in the mural are furnace production, mill welding, long tube inspection, pretreatment tank, crane hook that almost everyone at Nippon Steel has been trained on and used and tube racks.
Ivy said there also are a few items to emphasize the company’s 5S process (sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain), like a wet paint sign and a cleaning bucket.
McIntosh incorporated a variety of colors to make the parts of the mural stand out.
“I really just love working and exploring with color,” he said. “The more I can challenge myself in a piece, especially with color theory, the more excitement I feel.”
With this mural, which is entitled “Determination,” he said the color usage was planned out with much thoughtfulness.
“The dark blues and purples, the colder tones, represent the struggle,” McIntosh said. “The golds and oranges represent comfort. Most of all the light yellow and white represent hope.”
Why did he want to represent struggle, comfort and hope?
“One is because every one of us can identify with these feelings,” he said. “Two is because I’ve worked in many jobs, including factories, I absolutely hated, not necessarily the work or the people but for the simple fact that I wasn’t living out my passion.”
He said he was living the life of a revolving door with the same schedule, machine and meetings day in and day out.
“The only thing that helped me through those long factory days and nights was the break room,” he said. “That’s where I would dream of the life I am now living today. Even though life was a struggle, the paycheck and job security brought comfort. Most of all, I always had hope.”
Now, his hope for the “Determination” mural is to inspire those who are just like him: Dreamers.
Ivy said the mural is a good addition to the new, fresh break room remodel.
“We hope the mural would give our associates a sense of pride and create a unique environment to enjoy,” she said. “Many have expressed their gratitude for the art. We would like to thank Kyle again for his job well done.”
This was McIntosh’s second time painting a mural inside a local industry. The other one is at SpaceGuard Products in Seymour.
He said he has a couple of contract proposals on the table at other factories and warehouses.
His mural work also can be seen locally at The Brooklyn Pizza Co., Vat + Barrel, Fun Blast, 13th Floor Music & Accessories and CrossFit Seymour and on a wall at Burkart Boulevard and Tipton Street in Seymour.
Plus, he painted murals on exterior walls at Crothersville Town Hall, Tri-County Conservation Club and Eagle Chiropractic and painted Radio 96.3’s new Cool Bus 2.0.
