The Breathtaking Murals of Philadelphia

I recently visited my daughter and her fiancé in their new hometown of Philadelphia. I had only traveled there once many, many years ago.  I have to admit I was a bit determined to dislike everything about this city.  After all, my best girl Emily is living there and not here at home in Boston.

Being a woman who is on the path to self realization, I can admit when I am wrong (well, sometimes)…This is one situation where I will admit I was wrong! I fell “head over heels”  with the City of Brotherly Love!

Emily did a wonderful job as tour guide and I discovered that Philadelphia is a city not only filled with history and sumptuous restaurants, but is also an art filled city ~ and a sister city of Paris!

Art can be found in traditional places such as the Barnes Museum, which boasts the second largest collection of Impressionist paintings outside of Paris. However, my breath was taken away with the murals of the city!

In the 1980’s a program was created to discourage unsightly graffiti. The city offered 2 choices to the offenders: jail or help beautify the city with paint or murals. As we traveled throughout the city, I was taken with the magnitude and beauty of murals that scale entire building walls and many a petite mural as well.

My daughter registered us for the Mural Mile Tour  and this is where I learned that Philadelphia has 3500 murals throughout the city and that many of them are painted by everyone from community members to acclaimed artists.

Come take a virtual tour with me of some of the most beautiful murals of Philadelphia…

Just look at the magnitude of this art work…compare it to the cars…isn’t this the most beautiful parking lot you have ever seen?

I adore the mixed media mosaic aspect of this mural…

And this quote by Abraham Lincoln: “The eternal struggle between these two principles~ right and wrong throughout the world. They are the two principles that ;have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will forever continue to struggle.”

My Em

This mural seems to me to be an extension of this community garden, it is by artist David Guinn.

A closer view

Look how vibrant the colors are…a little bit like watercolor

I am in heaven looking at these murals…inspired.

A word about David Guinn, he has painted several murals throughout Philadelphia he is quoted as saying, “I just like working with color…spiritual practical making art…don’t know where inspiration comes from…”

This mural, also by David Guinn, is titled Gimme Shelter  and is on the wall of an animal shelter, the Morris Animal Refuge.

The shelter had fundraiser and sold raffle tickets with the prize being to have your pet painted in this mural.  The winners have their “best friends” represented here…

In fact, these 2 black labs look like my “granddogs” Noni and Reno 🙂

As we rounded the corner on this walking tour I gasped for the scale and beauty of this mural. WOW!

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This mural is called Theatre of Life by Meg Saligman. It was created in 2002 and is composed of cement, rebar, glass marbles, glass tiles.  The mural explores the many roles we play in life.

The left side of the mural

This mural is dimensional and this was my view looking up, it is the skirt of one of the dancers

Can you imagine going to pick up your lunch and seeing this magnificent work of art?

Incredible detail and color in the mosaic work…

I just had to touch it!

A quick view of another mural by David Guinn, Spring

When I looked closely at this one I noticed it is painted with squares, as opposed to Gimme Shelter which was painted using circles. The style reminded me of the artist Georges Seurat, known for pointillism and his iconic masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island la Grande Jatte.

Not all murals are on the sides of enormous buildings.  This one is on a restaurant called Dirty Franks…

Love this very graphic style ~ can you guess what all of these characters have in common? (hint: all their names begin with F).

This mural is on the side of an Italian restaurant and it is gorgeous! It is called A Taste of Summer.

The chef of this establishment is part of the mural, he is depicted heading out the back door.

I love this tid bit of information: When the artist, Ann Northrup, was installing and painting the mural, the parking attendant was watching her everyday. She discovered that he was from Jamaica and that he was in Philly working to send money home to his family and that he missed his daughter terribly. Ms. Northrup asked to see a photo of the daughter and then surprised the man by painting his daughter in this window, smiling at him.

One of the benefits of a tour is a story like that!

This mural is called Pride and Progress, another work by Ann Northrup. It charts our progress with equality for all.

This is the artist and her partner

And her Mom

The next mural is called Progress of Women

Can you spy Eleanor Roosevelt on the left?

This reads, “equal jobs and education opportunites”

Close-up of the incredible detail:

This mural is called Philadelphia Muses, it was created in 2000 and is 6,000 square feet. The subject matter explores the diversity of the artistic disciplines

I particularly liked the paintbrush…

As you can probably tell, I have another favorite city to add to my collection.  Philadelphia has so much to offer and I look forward to exploring this exciting city ~at least for a little while until my Emmie comes home…

xo,

Pamela

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