Matt Lively’s New Mural at HOBNOB: It’s All About Fifties

 By Charles McGuigan 12.2020

Matt Lively really knows how to celebrate a birthday: on his natal day, he does what a Halfling might do—he gives gifts to others.

In early December, Matt Lively is putting the finishing touches on a mural that spans the entire south wall of HOBNOB on Hermitage Road. One of his signature beecycle murals already graces the north wall of the same Lakeside restaurant.

HOBNOB, co-owner, Tracey Thoroman joins us, steps back from the wall with arms folded across a black bib apron, and nods.

With brush still in hand, as he dabs a curl of white paint onto a daisy petal. Matt tells me he’s   celebrating his 50th birthday which is why he is painting 50 daisies on the wall at HOBNOB. What’s more he’s doing it in exchange for 50 HOBNOB gift certificates for $50 each which will go to 50 area nurses, recognizing the selfless and courageous work they have performed during COVID-19 pandemic.

“My mom was a nurse and I can’t help think about my mom on my birthday, so I thought of nurses,” says Matt, and then he turns to Tracey. “But you guys thought of nurses also, so it was the perfect combination,” Matt says.

Turns out, Matt was the first Lamaze baby born in Richmond thanks to his mother who taught classes in that birthing technique up until the time Matt and his wife had their first child.

Matt describes what someone sees when entering the parking lot at HOBNOB. First, you see his mural of beecycles. “And the drive-through is great and it’s got an umbrella and happy people come out to give you your food ,” he says. “But when you round the corner, when you come to HOBNOB, it used to be a gray wall here, so I thought that it would be good to have something else back here as you drive out.

When I ask him the width of the mural, he says, “It’s exactly fifty daisies wide.”

“Do your beecycles ever visit this side to pollinate?” I ask.

“That will be on my fifty-first birthday,” Matt Lively says.

Then, Tracey tells me that the response to the gift certificates for nurses was overwhelming. “We had a great response,” he says. “About five hundred people got nominated. We wish we could have given them out to everybody, but we drew the fifty names on Monday afternoon and we’ve notified them all on Facebook and Instagram. They’re the ones who are doing the really hard work during this pandemic. People like Matt’s mother.”