The Landscape of Painting

Graffiti or Not in Philadelphia?

[Click on the picture for the larger version]

The block between 41st and 42nd Streets along Sansom in West Philly is pretty quiet, probably thanks to the police station up the street.

But an artist, unknown to me, has taken over these garage doors to paint beautiful portraits. There are a couple of Simpson-esque characters, Frank Zappa and Jerry Garcia, but most of them look like they’re just cool made up faces. When we lived in that neighborhood we’d make a point of heading down Sansom on the way home to check the progress of this work of art. I hope it’s still there – I haven’t been there in a couple years.

In the strictest analysis these portraits may not even be what I’m calling graffiti. Maybe the artist who painted these portraits owns the garage, and so this might be public art instead. Maybe you’re familiar with these garage doors and even know the artist. If so, I’d love to know the story behind closed doors.

If you don’t live in or near Philadelphia, you might not know that the painting of murals is huge there, thanks completely to the Mural Arts Program. Originally the program gave an outlet to graffiti writers in the 1980′s, but Jane Golden has evolved it to the point where the murals are painted by professional artists. Consequently the quality of the work has improved immensely, and the city can be proud to show off the murals to residents and tourists. The artists hold open forums to present and discuss their plans for the mural, and the neighbors have a lot of input into how their section of town will be represented. I admire the artists for being willing to compromise, in many cases I’m sure, their concept for the sake of the greater good. That kind of goes against the idea of the artist expressing his or her own ideas only for the sake of their art.

Having lived in Philadelphia for more than 25 years, though, I have to say I’m slightly uncomfortable with the 2800 or so murals. That number means that there are at least 2800 walls that are available because the house next to it has burned or fallen down, exposing the outside of the house next door. It’s no secret that Philadelphia has had severe economic problems for decades as its tax base has shriveled. In New York or San Francisco, where real estate is way more valuable, buildings in trouble would be renovated or re-built instead, hiding blank walls and providing fewer opportunities for a mural program. Ironically, as always happens, it would be the artists who would also make these new neighborhoods investor-friendly. First come the artists and then come the lawyers and doctors.

But that having been said, I’d much rather have a robust wall beautification program that gives well-paying jobs to talented artists than see blank decrepit walls in dismal neighborhoods anyday.  You can learn more about the Mural Arts Program here.

Tags: Street art

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Street art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.