St. Johns, MI, artist Brian McKelvey is launching his national Big Ten Conference pub scene series, a move that will likely transition McKelvey from a local celebrity to a national name.
McKelvey draws street and pub scenes of downtown areas. Rather than drawing the entire downtown, he squeezes the most popular destinations together, creating a scene of the area’s hot spots
In April, McKelvey unveiled his street scene of Downtown Lansing, which included the Stadium District, the Exchange, the Green Door and the Capitol building, at a 
Stadium District fundraiser.
Friday, McKelvey is having a release party for his Big Ten pub scene project from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Rum Runners in Downtown Lansing. By the time the project is complete, McKelvey will have drawn scenes for the cities that host every Big Ten school.
“That evolved because I opened gallery on Mackinac Island last summer and people saw my drawings and said, ‘When are you going to come to Columbus? When are we going to see Purdue?'"
McKelvey got his start as a professional artist when he went door-to-door asking people if they wanted renderings of their houses. In 2000, he decided to start creating street scenes. Since then he’s created about 65 street scenes of Michigan alone.
Within the last couple of years, McKelvey’s business has doubled. One of his friends even quit a stable job as a Web developer to help McKelvey with his business.
“It’s working out really great, and so far everything’s jelling,” McKelvey says.
McKelvey spent several years in San Diego, but returned to his Michigan roots, where he now intends to stay.
“My family is from here, and I like Michigan,” he says. “I live out in the country and I love it. I’m centrally located in Michigan and it’s perfect because I’m about 3.5 hours from anywhere I want to get to.”
Source: Brian McKelvey, Street Scenes
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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