A diorama of a small man in a suit standing outside of a tall, white building that reads “The Lottery” in Spanish hangs inside Radio Maria’s main dining room.

This piece of art, as well as most of the pieces that David Spears creates for his co-owned multinational cuisine restaurant, are “for art’s sake.” However, Spears conceived “La Lotería” from parts of a typewriter and a sewing machine for himself.

Original artwork like this decorates the interior of Radio Maria, making it a destination for those looking to enjoy an interesting atmosphere.

Spears, a sculptor, runs the art-driven restaurant at 119 N. Walnut St. with his partner of 20 years, painter Sharon Owens. After Spears graduated with a master’s from FAA at the University, he met Owens at a local bar.

“We decided we should do something for ourselves,” Spears said. That was when the artists decided to open the Radio Maria dining room 16 years ago.

“People thought we wouldn’t last a month,” Spears said. “(Downtown Champaign) was a questionable area at the time, with the homelessness and such.”

At the time, Spears and Owens envisioned Radio Maria as a restaurant to provide organic food made from indigenous ingredients with a personal touch. The artists decided to repurpose local materials by making artwork from them and displaying their pieces in the dining room.

As member of the Preservation and Conservation Association, Spears has access to these local materials dating back to the Industrial Revolution.

“(The material) could last for thousands of years, but it gets torn down before then,” Spears said.

Restroom counters and stall partitions were made from the old shower stalls of the women’s dormitory Linden Hall.

The tables in the main dining room were crafted from the University’s Harker Hall doors. The restaurant’s pendant lights that hang above customers originally belonged to Gibson City Elementary School.

“For me, it’s a quest to find (materials) that have some significance or reference,” Spears said.

Fast forward to 2007, when the space next door to Radio Maria became available. After the landlord purchased the addition, Spears and Owens turned the room into a tapas lounge and bar.

“It was a way of us fulfilling a couple of dreams … that was making the restaurant a more full-service restaurant,” Spears said.

Spears and Owens turned the expansion into an opportunity to add more artwork and continue repurposing.

“All the lighting fixtures, I built,” Spears said. The chandelier above the lounge is made from an aluminum disk from the Champaign Cinema Theater, a Holophane globe from an old subway lamp and an oiler from a Ford Model T car.

Behind the bar, Spears hung his piece “The Mask,” made out of puzzle pieces from a local creative reuse marketplace called The I.D.E.A Store.

He also designed and mounted “The Wheel” on the front window, a work inspired by an old grandfather clock. The tap handles in place of a clock’s hands reference Radio Maria’s circular beer dispensing system designed and patented by Spears himself, called the Hydratapper.

The owners further developed the addition into an outlet for local artists to display and sell their work to customers.

“We don’t take commission for works sold here,” Spears said. “It’s just a place where other artists have opinion.”

Today, Ron “RJ” Karlstrom features his paintings along the wall across from the bar — a series of acrylic pieces.

“It is a process of application and removal,” Karlstrom said. “My secret weapon is an electric eraser. I can get very detailed.”

Spears and Karlstrom agree that most customers gravitate toward “Backwater,” an acrylic on-panel painting with a limited color palette valued at $700.

“It’s a more unified piece than the others,” Karlstrom said. “It is definitely a landscape — the other ones are more fantasy-oriented.”

While Karlstrom also displays two large paintings in the dining room, many of the pieces next door remain unmoved.

“La Lotería” is one of them. According to Spears, the diorama was designed to explain how he works.

“Turn the crank and the businessman spins in the circle,” Spears said. “Life is a lottery.”

Lyanne can be reached at [email protected].