Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Artist Aaron Chine of Warren, left, speaks during the dedication of the Mo’ Musky mural Thursday afternoon as Mayor Doug Franklin looks on.

WARREN — “Mo’ Musky” is swimming where a giant once slept.

Warren artist Aaron Chine painted a 100-foot long, brightly colored muskellunge fish (commonly called a musky) on a retaining wall near the Mahoning River that is visible to an estimated 9,000 motorists each day driving on the Summit Street Bridge.

A formal unveiling ceremony took place Thursday afternoon with nearly 100 people in attendance. Chine arrived at the event on a raft coming down the Mahoning River with his 7-year-old son Louis shouting, “Daddy,” as the raft approached the shore.

“I’ve been drawing fish since I was a little kid,” Chine told the crowd. “Getting the chance to paint one on this scale along the river that inspired so much about my life and my work was pretty surreal. This mural was never about musky. It was about the mighty Mahoning. It’s about resilience, change and taking pride in a place that has written so much of our history. I know that art does not change the world overnight, but it does change the way we all see that world, and that’s where real change begins.”

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin referred to “The Sleeping Giant,” the fading mural by Thomas Morgan that had covered the wall for the last 11 years as, “A wonderful metaphor for our city’s potential. But let’s be honest. Warren is officially awake now, so it was time to wake up the wall too.”

The mural was funded through a public-private partnership involving the city of Warren, the Fund for Warren’s Future and a grant from the Sherwin-Williams Corp.

Dennis Blank, administrator of the Fund for Warren’s Future, said the name Mo’ Musky was inspired by Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Money” catchphrase.

“Mo’ is a slang version of more, and I thought it would be a good branding opportunity for us — Mo’ River, Mo’ Musky, Mo’ whatever. Mahoning is a fine word, but it’s an awkward word. Instead of having to call it that all the time, we can use it as a prefix to a number of other things.”

When the idea of a fish mural came about, Blank knew just who to call.

“He (Chine) painted the side of a building, the headquarters of Scientific Anglers (in Michigan),” Blank said. “I saw those fish and the other fish he’s painted, so we’ve got an artist right here in town who knows how to paint fish, and we’re trying to get people to pay more attention to the Mahoning. It was a pretty easy connection to make.”

Chine has painted several murals in the area and created pieces on the brick walls in David Grohl Alley, but Mo’ Musky is the largest piece he’s created in the city he’s called home for the last 20 years.

Everything about the project appealed to Chine when he initially was approached.

“The location of it with it being right on the river. That river is so special to me,” Chine said. “I was so, so happy with all the dam removal stuff and the revitalization of the river being part of it. And then, obviously, subject matter wise, when they said a fish, I was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect.'”

Chine, an Austintown native, grew up fishing with his father on the river, and he has fond memories of those times. Now he’s teaching his son to fish.

“Since I was a little kid, the only time I wasn’t in trouble was if I was fishing or drawing,” he said.

Drawing — with a tattoo needle — became the priority for years. Chine opened his tattoo studio, now called The Box Gallery, and focused on his business for a decade, seldom casting a line during those years.

In 2016 he was falsely accused of breaking into a vacant home in Warren and stealing copper pipe in 2016. He spent six days in jail before he could prove his innocence. It was a case of mistaken identity.

“After that incident, my wife took me on a trip down to Salt Fork just to get out of town,” he said. “On the way down, we stopped at my mom and dad’s and I grabbed one of my old fishing rods. I fished the whole weekend just to clear my head and forget about everything. And it really brought back how much I really loved fishing, and how much it really helped me growing up as a kid.”

He started fishing again regularly, and it’s become a second career. Chine built a reputation as a steelhead angler and was offered a job by Steelhead Alley Outfitters to be one of its fishing guides.

“I’m on the water as a full-time fishing guide, and then six months out of the year I’m in the tattoo shop as a full-time tattoo artist,” he said.

The time spent on the river also influenced his art. Fish became a frequent subject matter in his paintings, and canvases filled with those aquatic creatures will be featured in a solo exhibition at Trumbull Art Gallery opening next March.

Chine picked musky as the type of fish to paint because of their long bodies and their prevalence in the Mahoning. However, they are not the most visually appealing fish, so the coloring is closer to a rainbow trout.

The actual painting went pretty much as planned. The heat was oppressive at the start of the project, and for the smoky, hazy days last week due to the wildfires in Canada, Chine concentrated on spray painting work and wore a mask while doing it.

The initial plan was to rent a lift, which was included in the budget, but the more Chine looked at the site, which is 100 feet long but only about 16-feet tall, he realized he probably could complete the job with a ladder, and the money for that equipment rental will be used for other improvements at the site. Franklin said Thursday that the planned improvements for the area will include lighting to illuminate the mural at night, a gazebo, benches, tables and possibly a fountain.

The biggest surprise for Chine was the initial reaction to the removal of “The Sleeping Giant,” which was showing signs of wear. Chine said he remembered when Morgan’s proposal was chosen, people complained that it looked like a sleeping homeless person and questioned its selection.

“People were driving by yelling at me,” Chine said. “I think they thought we were just removing the mural. They didn’t know we were painting a new one up there. At first I was like, ‘What the heck, dude.’ Then I started thinking about it, and I’m like, ‘Man, you know what? I’m pretty lucky that I live in an area (where) people are this passionate about public art. As a public artist, this is pretty good that people really care this much about it, right?”