“Working out allows me to do what I need to do creatively, and it helps keep my weight down, which gives me a little added spring.”

“Exercise gives clarity. It frees you from mental congestion and helps you simplify the process of creating a piece of artwork.”

Accomplished muralist and sculptor Hubert Massey begins his days at 5:30 a.m., attending a local gym’s “boot camp” program with his wife. The intense, 45-minute regimen consists of jumping rope, push-ups, sit-ups and other movements designed to sustain an elevated heart rate and stimulate healthy metabolism.

For Massey, the sweaty wake-up routine also helps elevate a professional performance that requires calmness and concentration. Like a boxer preparing to enter the ring, he says workouts support the physical demands of toiling as many as 12 or 13 straight hours to create some of Michigan’s most visible art.

“It’s basically a way of helping to build and manage my energy,” says Massey, a Flint native. “Working out allows me to do what I need to do creatively, and it helps keep my weight down, which gives me a little added spring.”

A recipient of the distinguished Kresge Arts fellowship, Massey is known for murals and tile work that can be seen in locations as diverse as the Flint Institute of Arts, Grand Valley State University’s Richard M. DeVos Center in Grand Rapids, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History’s rotunda. He also created a mural that’s become a tourist attraction on the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Gateway pedestrian bridge in Detroit’s Mexicantown at the Canadian border. (It would be good to say what the mural is)

The Flint Institute houses an example of one of the artist’s most physically challenging creations … a 17 foot-by-88-foot fresco painting, the second-largest of its kind in Michigan.

The fresco technique, which Massey learned in the early 1990s from two of legendary painter Diego Rivera’s assistants, involves painting on wet surfaces, such as plaster and limestone, and is typically used to generate large-scale images.

“You have to build stamina to execute the process of a fresco, which typically requires scaling heights and physical flexibility,” says Massey.

Rivera’s 1932 mural, “The Assembly of an Automobile,” at the Detroit Institute of Arts is an example of fresco technique. Massey says the technique requires input from structural engineers and other team members, which extends the hours required and stamina needed to complete a single project.

Massey likens the physical conditioning that goes hand-in-hand with his chosen styles of art to his hours of practice when he played nose guard for Grand Valley State University Lakers football team. He also threw the discus in track and field. A knee injury forced him to leave the football team, resulting in a trip to Europe where he studied art.

Massey was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Grand Rapids for his achievements in 2012

The painter says he’s preparing to complete seven tile murals in July alone, and he has been commissioned to paint a fresco at Cobo Hall this summer. Morning “boot camps,” he says, will remain key to his endurance and success during the busy season.

Massey teaches young art students he mentors the discipline of sitting for long periods while drawing and “translating what you see” benefits from the preparedness of a conditioned body.

“Exercise gives clarity,” he says. “It frees you from mental congestion and helps you simplify the process of creating a piece of artwork.”

  Change Agents, Charles H. Wright Musuem, Culture, entrepreneur, Flint Institute of Arts, Grand Valley State University, Healthy Cities, Hubert Massey, Mental Health, the Kresge Foundation