Mr Imagination's Gone to Heaven by Bob Ziller

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Photo by Bob Ziller

Mr. Imagination, AKA Gregory Warmack, was an American Folk Artist and Bob Ziller’s friend. Possibly best known for using bottle caps in his sculptures, Mr. Imagination was a self taught artist that ended up with artwork in museums around the world. He may have been one of the most influential early adopters of re–purposing things, as he could create art from just about any discarded object he found.

Mr. Imagination’s Gone to Heaven is artist Bob Ziller’s tribute to his friend and fellow artist. It reminded us of Grandmere, the mural he created for his grandmother. Both are amazingly sweet, simple, touching images of someone whom Mr. Ziller obviously holds dear. He depicted his grandmother flying because he thought of her as a super hero. He portraits the late Mr.Imagination flying as an angel. Based on the on–line articles we found about him, that description seems to be a good one. One person described him as ...always full of joy, love, and endless creativity. Sounds like angel material to us.

Remembering Margo Lovelace by Logan Davidson Randolph

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She has never had the notoriety or instant recognition among the public that other puppeteers like Jim Henson or Fred Rogers have known, yet she is a world class, international award winning, puppeteer that ran her own theater here in Pittsburgh for years.

The purpose of this mural was to introduce Margo Lovelace and her legacy to those of us who were unfamiliar with her, and to bring back the childhood memories for those who experienced her shows first hand.

Margo Lovelace Visser began her lifelong relationship with puppets in 1949. She traveled the world studying and acquiring a diverse collection of masks and puppets of every style. In 1957 she opened a studio in East Liberty, but it wasn't until 1964 that she converted a garage in a house on Ellsworth Ave into the Lovelace Marionette Theatre Company (LMT Co) – the country’s first privately owned puppet theater. Over the years the LMT Co not only entertained local children with both classic and original stories, but they also trained and apprenticed them through schools and workshops.

In the late 70’s they moved to the Carnegie Museum of Art theater. There was also a three week engagement at the Smithsonian. When she donated her collection to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum in 1985, the 284 puppets represented 35 cultures.

We stopped by the Children’s Museum to see some of those puppets. We did not see the ones depicted in this mural, but we thought you might like having a taste of what else is in the collection anyway. Not all of the puppets at the museum are from the Margo Lovelace collection. Many of them are not identified one way or the other, but we've included a sampling of what was on display here. You can visit the museum to see more.

Salvador, German hand puppet.

Horse Marionette

Karagoz, Turkish shadow puppet.

Mexican Judas Figure

Minister Wu from Nightingale.

Puss in Boots

Red Riding Hood

Scandanavian hand puppet of a princess.

Below are some of the ones that were not labeled. We don’t know if they were from the Lovelace collection or not.

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ShadyLiberty Bridge Sculpture by Sheila Klein

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Not a mural, not a sculpture, but more than just a pedestrian bridge. Maybe functional public art? This walk/bike–way between Shadyside and East Liberty is dressed up and interesting. The chain link is decorated with glass disks that catch the light differently at different times of the day.

On the artist’s website we found this explanation for the design on the pavement and more:

The concrete walking path will be painted with arrhythmic, overlapping stripes in white and yellow, an idea that comes from the unintentionally beautiful pattern in the Liberty Avenue parking lot where street-line painters test their equipment. Essential to the project is the landscaping, lighting and sculptural cyclone fence. The curving chain link fence has handmade glass sequins edging the top of the fence that will glitter and define the space with reflections. The journey down Shady Liberty will create an experience of civilized surprise; dramatic and formal, yet playful and functional for all who walk across the bridge.

Sunny Side by Stevo Sadvary

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This bright, cheerful mosaic takes this half of a duplex from brown–and–blending–into–the–crowd to Hey, look at me! The difference is remarkable.

Close up to show the texture and details.

Urban Flora by Katherine Young

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For this mural, the artist created a more classic design but gave it a modern touch. According to the Sprout Fund, Katherine Young worked off of the community’s self–description as both contemporary and historical and combined styles to match the neighborhood’s personality. She chose the colors and metalic finish for the contemporary features and the damask pattern to represent the historic side.

In an article by Rochelle Hentges in Triblive.com, Ms Young explained that the design integrated with elements of the building. She said There’s a stained glass window that’s part of the bar that has an actual design of kind of vines or branches with leaves on them that’s incorporated into one of the trees, and the birds kind of fly out of the window.

What makes the design more interesting though, is the use of negative space. The trees and vines are defined by the lack of paint. The red brick shows through the blue background to create those images. Above the main section of the mural, the blue and lavender pattern separates from the blue background below and to the left the birds in muted colors fly freely across the plain brick wall. This all leaves you with the impression that the mural boundaries are undefined and makes you keep looking for more subtle detail.