Concrete Art with a Heart

50 YEARS OF INNOVATION

Preval, established in 1969, is the industry leader for spray and touch-up solutions. Preval stands alone in the paint industry with a full line of complementary spray products and accessories, designed to make spraying convenient and effective for the PRO and DIY user. Precision-based technology, with a low environmental impact, allows the Preval user to atomize coatings, paints and chemicals at nano-sized droplets ~ providing amazing versatility with the ability to deliver both ultra-thin and thick coatings, achieving professional level results.

50 YEARS OF INNOVATION

DECORATIVE & DESIGN

Rick Lobdell, the owner of Concrete Mystique and a professional artist with an MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design, has been driven for many years to integrate the art world with the decorative concrete industry. The 2016 World of Concrete exhibition gave him an opportunity to combine concrete with his personal artwork – in the form of a 7-foot tall pink bunny.

This pink bunny is more than an artistic concept brought to life; it is a monument for cancer awareness. “My wife is a molecular biologist who had been involved with cancer research for 11 years. So when I first got this idea to make the pink bunny, I realized it could be used to help people,” explains Lobdell. “We know everyone has a story about friends or family who’ve dealt with cancer, so we worked with Concrete Cares to collect donations during the World of Concrete this year. We were able to raise over $5000, which was donated to Candlelighters, a non-profit organization that primarily helps children in Las Vegas who are currently fighting cancer.”

Rick’s concrete creation was officially named on Thursday, February 4th, when a child by the name of Austin saw Lobdell’s pink bunny at the show. “Austin is a child fighting Leukemia, and we felt that using his name expressed our care in fighting Cancer as much as possible,” shares Lobdell. “If little Austin can fight cancer, then we can too. So our pink bunny is officially Austin the Concrete Cares Bunny.”

Concrete Mystique has participated in several events in the concrete industry, and every experience has presented Lobdell with an opportunity to help organize donations which are provided directly to local people in need. The makers of the Preval® products are proud to be part of his efforts. “I’ve been working with the Preval® Sprayer and the vFan Airbrush for about 4 years now, and they work really well for concrete,” shares Lobdell. “I can change colors as fast as I want to and not have to worry about wasting material. The great thing about the Preval® products is you can buy the 6-pack of the jars, keep your paint in the jars, and just replace the sprayer as needed. So when you mix multiple colors, you have the individual jars all ready with your different colors, and then just screw the sprayer onto each one as you need a specific color. That is a really unique thing, and I don’t think there is anything out there that can do that as simply, easily, and efficiently as the Preval® products can.”