Sewickley Community Center Mural by Baron Batch

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Four elephants on the fence outside the Sewickley Community Center with You are made for amazing things between them.

Perfect Imperfections by Baron Batch

About Pgh Murals
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Last year Thick Bikes expanded their shop and moved the entrance to the side along 15th St. It was a nice improvement on the layout for the store, but even with the bright, new entrance and clever use of plants in front it was easily swallowed up in the drab atmosphere of the narrow one way street. The old warehouse across from them with it's broken, boarded up windows and dreary tan facade overwhelmed the street with blah. This year the corridor was transformed. 15th Street is no longer just another narrow, brown and grey passage way with nothing to set it apart. This year it has art! Lots of art. Artist Baron Batch created a colorful, bright, exuberant corridor with his series of four elephants on the side of that old warehouse. There is no way you can travel down this road now and not notice them. The colors leap out and grab your attention immediately.

Baron likes elephants for several reasons and uses them often to represent community in his artwork.

Between the elephants, there are some words of wisdom and encouragement. So much of Mr Batch's art include uplifting elements and this series is no exception.

Update: Apr 2017

This mural is gone.  Baron Batch replaced this with a mural of butterflies.

Don't Forget to Write by Baron Batch

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Elephants are a favorite theme for Baron Batch. I had heard him say before that they represented community, but when I reached out with a few questions about this piece his studio assistant expanded on that:

“The elephant is a beautiful creature and symbol for community. Baron has said, “he always felt like the elephant in the room, or out of place, and longed to be part of a community.” Because elephants have their own societies and communities, Baron could always relate to them in that way.”

We were also told how much Mr Batch enjoyed creating this piece with the participation of onlookers and followers on social media. All of the writing on this piece are words contributed to the project via twitter, using the hashtag #DontForgetToWrite or from people in the live audience.

Baron has expressed how special it is to know that people arriving through the airport are introduced to our city with those words and his art. When he watched a group of kids later admiring the piece, he reflected on the collaborative effort used to create it and how it's presence here was introducing art to the next generation.

Baron has been conducting his own campaign to bring art to the people. During the lead up to the creation of this piece Baron would leave original artwork somewhere in the city and post a photo of it on instagram and twitter. Whoever found it first got to keep it! Many different versions of his elephant have been left along trails and leaning against buildings as fans raced to snag it for themselves. After completing this art at the airport, The Artist (as Baron is known on twitter) has continued to leave art for people to find. He promotes art in general with the phrase “Art Is Not Dead”, and he's creating art fans as he goes.

Don't Forget to Write is a four sided design, with elephants on two sides and writing on the other two.  This is a temporary display at Pittsburgh International Airport through Dec 2015.  We'll let you know where it goes from there if we can find out.

Progressing Pittsburgh by August Vernon

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Another local cyclist alerted us to this mural, and led us on an early Sunday morning excursion out to the southern portion of McCandles Township to see it. In spite of it's deteriorating condition we were immediately impressed and intrigued by it. Just what were elephants doing at The Point? Elephants that appeared to be able to walk on the Ohio River, no less. We had to know more.

We were able to contact August Vernon, and he was kind enough to explain:

"The mother elephant represents Pgh no longer in full view to the viewer. The baby elephant is the new generation of Pgh. They both are standing on the confluence symbolic of the way Pgh was built upon the 3 rivers. The west end bridge is arching over the city as a rainbow and the water is turquoise representing the clean-up of the city since the first renaissance in the 40's... Pittsburgh as an Elephant- both have strong memories holding fast to the past- both trudge forward slowly (trudge as in moving forward with purpose) and both stick together strongly in packs! Progressing Pittsburgh refers to the growth of our city over the past 150+ years slowly, surely, purposefully. "

The detail work on the elephants was still obvious, but it was sad to see the mural peeling. Mr Vernon told us that he found out too late that the oil paints did not hold up to exterior conditions very well. Looking on line we found a photo of this mural in it's original condition.

Obviously this mural is not located where most could walk to it. McKnight Rd did not aquire the nickname McNightmare Rd by mistake. If you go I'm going to suggest driving or public transportation to this one. It's just the safer option. The bus stops on McKnight Rd at the corner with Perrymont Rd. The mural is on the gas station wall next to the building that's on that corner.

Artist page for Andrew (August) Vernon

Artist Website

UPDATE Nov 2015

The building is being renovated and the mural is now gone.