Showing posts with label Sandy Kessler Kaminski. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandy Kessler Kaminski. Show all posts

06 January 2016

Welcome to the Strip by Sandy Kessler Kaminski

About Pgh Murals
Spreadsheet of Pittsburgh Public Art and blog archives
Map of Pittsburgh Public Art

I can't think of another mural in the city with as much visibility as Welcome to the Strip. You can see it while riding or walking on the North Shore or Strip District Trails. It's impossible to miss when driving on the Crosstown (Veteran’s Memorial) Bridge and I suspect from many of the downtown office windows. The best view seems to be from the 16th St Bridge where the horse from the mural lives. Look on top of the bridge and you'll see some very cool adornments. The armillary spheres are surrounded by four winged horses on each of the four granite piers. (Those horses, BTW, were done by sculptor Leo Lentilli.) Besides featuring one of the nearby bridge decorations, the mural seems to be showing us what's in the Strip: fresh food, fish, bread, wine and the stained glass windows from the church on Smallman St.

The 16th St Bridge horses:

UPDATE Nov 2016
The building is being turned into offices and the mural was removed.

05 January 2016

A Day in the Park by Kenneth Tator

About Pgh Murals
Spreadsheet of Pittsburgh Public Art and blog archives
Map of Pittsburgh Public Art


The Sprout Fund provided the information for A Day in the Park:

Kenneth Tator’s A Day in the Park was painted on the grounds of The Pittsburgh Project in the Perry South neighborhood of Pittsburgh. This mural is significant as it is the first Sprout mural to utilize a folk art style. Though exemplified by seemingly rushed brush strokes and a rough finish, upon closer inspection, the mural has a deliberate and keen sense of color, composition and arrangement. This simple, uncomplicated imagery offers a sense of warmth and communion in an area of Pittsburgh that has had its share of hard times. A gateway to the very park it depicts, this building is owned by The Pittsburgh Project, a nonprofit organization that trains area youth with the skills of property refurbishment, bringing old, abandoned or decrepit buildings up to city code. The Pittsburgh Project wanted to give a face to their beneficial community initiatives and this mural continues their mission of encouraging communities to use creative means and the given environment to improve the quality of life for all residents.

Update
Dec 2014

A friend of ours was able to get a new photo without the ice machine blocking the mural:


photo by Paul Heckbert

The mural needed some repairs after 10 years. A door on the building had been replaced and artist Sandy Kessler Kaminski was hired by the Sprout Fund to restore the missing artwork on the new door. While working on the mural a local resident expressed the wish that the mural had included more diversity. The make up of the neighborhood had changed some over the decade since the mural had been done, so Ms Kaminski included a new figure to reflect that. We haven't had a chance to ride up to re-photograph it, but when we do we'll add a new picture.