Pinball Mural by Soviet, Remix, Smae

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The world headquarters of the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) is located in Carnegie. Who knew? We stumbled on this mural quite by accident and later discovered that PAPA was located here. Within this building they run World Pinball Championship competitions with more than 400 pinball machines.

We contacted PAPA and asked them if they’d tell us about the mural’s design. This was their response:

Graffiti artists: Soviet and Remix, with support from Smae. All from the locally based NSF crew.

Painted: December 2010, in one week's time.

Design: Completely free styled, no sketches. Designs inspired by the bevy of pinball art available to the guys at PAPA HQ. For instance, the feathers in the owl are derived from the cabinet side art on Sonic's 1977 Butterfly http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=410 The chimera was influenced by the backglass on Bally's 1978 Paragon http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1755 and so on. The guys saw stuff they like and borrowed and reapropriated as they saw fit to fill space.

The tag by the back door was based on my assertion that, the only tag on my block is on my building, by the back door, and it reads Underground Peace. So, when my Mom calls me up to ask me 'how are things', I could tell her that, and she'd know what I mean.

etc etc etc

I cleared the back lot because it was a trash pit. I painted the back wall because the cinder block was bare, porous, and was leaking moisture through, affecting the integrity of the interior walls. Once I primed the back wall to seal it, it just seemed right to go one step further and have a mural thrown up.