Clean Energy for America - Strip District

Here are some of the Shepard Fairey posters in the Strip District. I have others from other places in town, including the big installation across the street from the Andy Warhol museum, bu they're all trapped on my computer at home (shhh...I'm throwing this post up from work right now). I'll post those later.

Penn Ave Shepard Fairey mural update

I rode through downtown on my way to work to see the finished Shepard Fairey mural at Penn Avenue. I couldn't stay to see it complete yesterday, as I was already late to meet Bethany, Silas, and a friend for a hike at Frick Park. Here is a photo of the piece.

Shepard Fairey murals in Pittsburgh

Shepard Fairey is in town for the unveiling of a piece of work (Clean Energy for America) this weekend as part of a Netroots Nation event. He is, of course, to date probably best known for his Obama "HOPE" poster. A number of murals are going up around Pittsburgh.

I ran across one going up in an alley off Penn Blvd between 8th and 9th (I think) and watched them work for a while. Then I rode over to the one at 1st and Wood St, as shown below. I think this is a very exciting series of events for Pittsburgh. I'd like to see the mainstream media pick up some of the issues and talk about them. We'll see.

I'd love to go to the Clean Energy for America unveiling, but I'll be watching the Decemberists play at the Byham Theater. It's tough to have such difficult choices.

Here are a few links discussing the murals, the event, and the organizations.

• http://bittersweetharvest.blogspot.com/2009/08/la-street-art-in-pittsburgh.html
• http://iheartpgh.com/2009/08/12/party-to-celebrate-shepard-faireys-clean-energy-for-america-installation/
• http://www.netrootsnation.org/
• http://obeygiant.com/

Mural and a Sunday ride

We had a nice brunch with friends on Sunday. Riding back toward Bloomfield with Maya and Ryder, I saw this interesting mural on an interesting building. It a much nicer experience than that corner would have been without the scenes painted on the plywood.

Sargent Electric murals

The new Sargent Electric Company building on Liberty Ave has a series of murals on the ground floor. They're unfortunately challenging to see because the road is such a raceway for cars and few people actually walk past. However, I see them daily on the bike and stopped to photograph them (less than professionally, I know) one day when I walked to work instead of having ridden the bike. The theme follows the region's progression of power generation and artificial light from the early days of the industrial revolution to the current push toward renewables and into the future in the last pane. The murals were done by students from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and more info can be found on Sargent Electric's webpage for the murals: http://www.sargent.com/mural.

More Pittsburgh murals

The first is on East Carson between Station Square and 10th, on the north side of the road, but facing East. One probably needs to be going toward Station Square to see it.

The next two are at Station Square at the entrance to the Gateway Clipper landing. They give a nice, short pictorial history of the city.

New Mural in the Strip

One of the asian food stores in the Strip District is getting a new mural. This city is great with its murals. I'm particularly fond of this one. I was wandering around with some coworkers hungry for lunch, I would have stopped and talked to the artist.

Mural

I had to stop and take a picture of this mural on my ride Sunday. It's somewhere along Frankstown Rd in either Penn Hills or (more likely) Lincoln-Larimer or possibly Homewood North. I don't really know the area well enough to guess any better than that.

I think the message is true, though it really saddens me. So many of the folks here in this city, and really, across the country, are stuck with their lots in life. Some of it is by their own choice, but there is so much inertia and so many barriers to overcome for people to break out of the vicious cycle of violence, drug/alcohol abuse, crime, and despair.

Privileged. That's how I feel for being born into the life I have. I fear I wouldn't have been strong enough to get here without the tools and expectations I was born into.