Famous Philly Murals

by Sharvon Urbannavage staff writer

There are more than. 2,000 indoor and outdoor murals in Philadelphia and many more in the works. The creators of these majestic large-scale paintings portray various scenes that affect the people who live near the artwork or who pass by it in their daily journeys.

"I love the way that murals make art accessible to people," director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Jane Golden said in an interview with ABC news in July. "Art doesn't have to be behind the walls of galleries and museums. It can be in people's neighborhoods, it can be downtown, it can be in a community."

These big and bold works of art serve to provoke thought, to inspire dreams, to bear witness and to remind people that they are part of a larger world. "Murals can give visual representation to our past and our pre- sent,'' Golden said. 'They're tools of education because they can last 20 years. Kids, even JlCOple'sgrandchildren can walk by, bike by, look at the mural and see the history of this area." From the initial brush stroke that prepares the mural wall, passersby stop to watch and wonder.

Creating a mural does not merely involve buckets of house paint, a wall and an artist. The process consists of many steps and decisive calculations regarding the final outcome.

Mural artists use a special paint called Artex Novacolor, which is produced by a small company in Los Angeles. This paint comes in brilliant colors and is manufactured with special ultraviolet light resistors to enable the murals to withstand their outdoor locations.

There are four primary methods for transferring an image from paper to wall. These methods include the grid system, photo transfer, stencil and direct projection.

The grid system, which is most commonly used in Philadelphia, superimposes a grid of horizontal and vertical lines over the original picture, dividing it into squares. A large grid is then put on the wall surface and the artist reproduces each square on the mural.

Photo transfer involves projecting the original image onto an interface material taped up on an inside wall, tracing the projection and taking the traced image to the mural site. This serves as a guide for reproducing the basic shapes and color breaks of the original image.

The stencil method, also known as the Michelangelo method, is used as a means of scaling up images. The artist projects or recreates an image on an interface material and makes holes throughout the material to outline the image. When the interface material is brqught to the mural site, chalk is lightly tapped over the image transferring it onto the wall with small chalk dots.

Direct projection is done at night by projecting the image directly on a mural wall and then either tracing the image or directly painting the image. This method is use- ful when the artist faces a tight deadline.

Philly murals are popular attractions for both tourists and residents.

A new mural, dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is slated for a building at Delaware Avenue and Spring Garden Street. This mural will be will be an image of a large flag that appears to be hanging from the wall of the building.