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Tucked away in a side alley, this incredible mural is almost hidden. If you don’t live in the neighborhood, you have to pretty much be looking for this mural to find it. I’ll confess right now – our photos do not do this one justice. Not even close.
The buildings here are close together and the business beside the mural has parked cars and equipment that block the view of the bottom portion. We’ve ridden out to see this mural at least four times and we’ve never yet had a clear view of the entire thing.
Like so many neighborhoods in the area, Lawrenceville has been working to have it’s own renaissance. At the time this mural was done, the area it’s in was being over run with drugs and prostitution. The owner of the building at that time had recently moved in and the conditions in the area shocked him somewhat. He and a friend of his (artist Marc Runco) discussed the idea of a mural. The two friends decided on a religious theme and Marc Runco looked to the Book of Revelation for inspiration. In a Post Gazette article by Patricia Lowry, James O’Toole (then owner of the building) described the mural as a vision of hell and hope
.
The imagery is amazing. Satan as a multi–headed dragon fighting the Archangels on winged horses; skeleton figures of demons coercing people to fight and kill; angels struggling to pull sinners from the brink of hell.
In the same Post Gazette article mentioned above Mr O’Toole points out the prostitute with one leg in hell holding onto the chalice, which represents the Power of God
.
The mural is titled Jesus. The artist’s message is Jesus lives
. If the images aren’t enough to show you that, the bottom corner is tagged
with Jesus’s name using a can of spray paint. God telling everyone that He’s in the neighborhood, even if you don’t think you’ve seen him lately.
Update
December 2014
The business next door has apparently changed. All of the cars and the large dumpster blocking the bottom of the mural are gone! For the first time we were able to see the details at the gates of Hell:
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