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.

History of Carnegie mural by MLK Community Murals Project

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Another community history type mural, this wall provides a collage of images of landmarks and historic figures. People important to the town of Carnegie such as it’s namesake, Andrew Carnegie and it’s sports hero, Honus Wagner figure prominently. The railroad observation tower, town clocks, and other easily recognizable landmarks are scattered throughout.

We wondered about the film reel, not aware of Carnegie as having a movie industry at any time. We uncovered a tidbit about a film having been made there in 1988. Apparently a bit of a bomb called Monkey Shines, but it was George Romero’s first commercial film. A horror movie he did before his much more famous Dawn of the Dead series. Perhaps that explains the film reel. Perhaps not.

The bottom right images around the large paint brush might be self portraits of the artists involved on this one.

Summary:

Artist(s): Bill Borcik, Karen Mahoney
Address: Mary St and E. Main St.
City:Carnegie
Zip Code:15106
Organization: MLK Community Murals Project

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Twitter: @PghMurals

Rebirth by Gregg Valley

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Rebirth represents Carnegie’s recovery from not only the floods caused by hurricane Ivan, but the economic recovery of the town as well. Gregg Valley created a huge, beautiful, blue water phoenix to illustrate the town rising from not ashes, but flooding. On the right half of the mural the phoenix dominates with the night sky and swirling waters. On the left side the sun is out, flowers are blooming and the people and animals are back to normal activities. It's a confirmation of the the resilience of the community and their ability to bounce back from adversity. A very positive message.

Summary:

Artist(s): Gregg Valley
Address: 301 West Main St
City:Carnegie
Zip Code: 15106
Organization: Sprout Fund

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Twitter: @PghMurals

Honus Wagner by Nils Hanczar

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As of Dec 2012, Johannes Peter Honus Wagner still holds the honor of having the most valuable baseball trading card. This mural is a replica of that card (which brought $2.8 million at auction). The reason why his card is so rare is due to the fact that Honus Wagner didn't want to be used to sell tobacco so he never gave permission to use his image on a card. At that time baseball cards were packaged with tobacco rather than gum. It was printed in 1909, but recalled at Mr Wagner's request, so a limited number of cards made it into circulation.

We were tempted to list Honus Wagner's baseball statistics here, but it's easy enough to get the stats for the Flying Dutchman elsewhere. We'll just say probably the best short stop ever, and not a chance he was on steroids!

The town of Carnegie is obviously proud of one of their own. The mural was designed by Constantine Hanczar, a longtime member of American Legion Post 82 – where the mural is located. It was painted by his grandson Nils.

Constantine and Nils Hanczar in front of the mural. Photographer unknown.

Summary:

Artist(s): Nils Hanczar
Address: 421 Jane St
City:Carnegie
Zip Code:15106

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Twitter: @PghMurals

Sunflowers in the City by Harry "Hawkeye" Demel

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Carnegie had some serious flood issues in the aftermath of hurricane Ivan. Whether or not this project was directly related to that I don’t know, but the borough leaders were looking at ways to control runoff. The Pennsylvania American Water Company provided a grant toward watershed improvement, and this mural became a part of that project.

The mural is unique in a couple of ways. First of all, it’s designed to be moveable. Rather than painting directly on the side of the Historical Society’s building, the five panels were framed and bolted to the wall. Second, the sunflower panels are in relief, made of masonite and polyurethane plaster. Both the construction with those materials and the way the frames are stacked give the presentation the three dimensional aspect.

The subject of the art wasn’t random. As part of that watershed improvement, real sunflowers are planted beneath where the mural hangs. They’re watered using recovered rainwater from the building’s roof runoff.

Summary:

Artist(s): Harry "Hawkeye" Demel
Address: 1 W. Main St.
City: Carnegie
Zip Code: 15106

PghMurals@gmail.com
Twitter: @PghMurals