Philadelphia Mural Viewing Trip

In May and June I spent two separate days In Philadelphia taking a look at some of the murals  there. There are actually over 3000 (yes, three thousand  ) murals in the city. The instigator of this was Jane Golden who started an anti-graffiti campaign in Philadelphia where  graffiti artists were redirected to Mural painting.   That was in 1984 and the program has grown  a lot since then  Check out  http://www.muralarts.org/ for more info.

They have pioneered the use of photo-shop to paint photo-real murals as well as  using parachute cloth, which is a tyvek type  material that you can paint on in a studio and then adhere to the outdoor wall like  wallpaper. Meg Saligman is the local top dog with this wonderful flag near Philly’s riverfront. in the gallery below you can see more of her stuff,  figures in a photo-real style.

I had a great time in Philly. One  moment of weirdness was on the Sunday afternoon I visited about 30 murals.Many of them were in rougher neighborhoods . The quality and  concepts are quite high. But the most amazing thing I saw were these  insane car chases in which police chased these daredevil  gang-bangers on ATVs, who were buzzing through traffic at  breathtaking speeds . It was like an old Mel Gibson movie.

The noise  and the people  and the frenetic activity on the street all disappear  as you leave the rougher  neighborhoods and enter the gentrified  areas. Suddenly no one is on the street, like a neutron bomb hit. Was  everybody out of town? Inside watching TV?

It’s a great place. They have mural routes and bused tours as well, but you would need several weeks to see them all.