NASHVILLE — Adam Long agreed to update the Bear logo on the rooftop of the Bear Hardware store in Nashville, just about 10 minutes northeast of Brown County.
However, he wanted to brush up on his technique by turning the paint job into the project of a lifetime. Long decided to paint a giant American flag with a grizzly bear on the rooftop.
“I want you to be driving by, and I want to get you in here. I want to bring people in to say, what’s going on here,” Long said.
With more than 40 gallons of paint and his friend, Sasha, Long began to work with a vision that involved a mix of stars, stripes and specific shades of yellow, blue and red.
“This has been, by far, the toughest [project]. There’s nothing that’s even compared physically or mentally to this project,” Long said.
Long spent day after day hunched over on the hardware store’s 10,200 square-foot rooftop, painting away.
The painting can be viewed from State Roads 46 and 135 in Nashville.
“We wanted to give that action feeling where, not only you see the flag as a stamp drawing, but also in motion where you can kind of feel that it’s moving,” Sasha said.
Long created a special bond with the hardware store owners over the course of the project.
“The people that I painted for have become family, so it’s really exciting to get to know who I’m going to be family with,” Long said.
Long only began painting in 2018. He has several masterpieces for Hoosiers to enjoy on display.
