About Pgh Murals
Spreadsheet of Pittsburgh Public Art and blog archives
Map of Pittsburgh Public Art
Rumors abound:
...bride's last glance back before leaving forever
...referd (sic) to as the runaway bride. She is running back into the house, not looking back.
...of a bride leaving a house (and crying).
..going back into the house... whether she'd forgotten something or someone, or the wedding had been put off, or...
...inspired by a ghost story of a bride that died either before or right after a wedding.
it's whatever you think it is. Even the title of the mural came from others. When Mz Penzer was told it was being referred to as
The Bride on Penn Aveshe made that the title.
The mural was commissioned in 1995 by the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC) and completed in 1996. In 2011 it was in need of restoration, but the original artist could not do the work. Sadly, she was killed in
the crash of TWA800 along with Jill Watson (who had designed
the mural). The BGC then hired local artist Ashley Hodder to take on
the restoration work. She contacted a restoration expert and with an
assistant, set about to clean and chemically treat the mural. The
process would re-bond the molecules and let the original colors
come through again
. She then had to re-attach each small paint chip that was peeling away from the wall. After than she used an isolation coat in order to separate the original work of art from the portions that she would have to touch up where the paint had already flaked off. With the isolation coat in place her restoration work could be removed without affecting the original artwork.
Today the mural is a local landmark. The row of houses like the one depicted in the painting is now referred to as Bride Row
. Originally there were nine identical, three story homes here. The most easterly one had a commercial addition added in the 1960's. The mural uses the remnants of that original house to re-create itself in the mural. If you look closely you'll see that most of the side of the house in the mural isn't painted – it's actually the original brick of the real house. Along with the mural, the eight other homes are considered a distinct architectural landmark for the area and there is a proposed project to restore and preserve the front facades and porches in this row.
Update: July 2013, Bride’s Row caught fire. No information yet as to whether this will affect any plans that might have still been in the works for restoring the facades of these old homes. We rode by to confirm that the mural was OK. We didn’t get an up–close look, but to our non–expert eyes it appeared to have been spared damage.
Summary:
Artist(s): Judy Penzer, Jill Watson, restoration by Ashley Hodder
Address: 5463 Penn Ave
City: Pittsburgh (Garfield)
Zip Code: 15206
PghMurals@gmail.com
Twitter: @PghMurals
I always took this as to the bride being stood up. She is running back into the house crying.
ReplyDeleteIt sort of looks like the house is on fire, with the orange and yellow showing through the windows and door.
ReplyDelete