This week we will be going on a mural tour! We’ll be meeting in class, meet our tour guide, Kiela Smith, watch a video and then board the tour bus. Below is a slide show of some of the places we visited…
Required readings:
(1) “Whose Monument Where?”
(2) “Two Women on the Street”
(3) “The Mural Movement”
– Don’t forget to comment on Week 4.
Optional Resources:
Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia
About “The Wall of Respect”
About the mural – from Northwestern University Block Museum. Download a description.
Read the essay, “The Artistic Evolution of the Wall of Respect”
Read the essay “The Wall of Respect and the Black Arts Movement”
Read Gwendolyn Brooks poem, “The Wall”
The Art of Crossing the Street Weblog 
Hi all,
I thoroughly enjoyed our tour last week. Great photos of the trip here. I hope to visit again. Remember, effective collaboration requires one to bring the inner thoughts out, which forges rich communication and engaging art. One of my favorite African proverbs is ‘One head does not make a counsel’. Without intending to sound trite, the old adage ‘the sum is greater than its parts’ still has relevance today. This is what an effective collaborative project should express.
Make it a joyful and creative day!
Kiela
I really enjoyed seeing all the murals and being in their environment. Learning more about the process of making a mural made me realize how much of a performative experience it must be. It seems like it would be a very powerful thing to take part in. I hope at some point we get a chance to discuss the readings from this class because I was a little conflicted on what some of them seemed to be expressing. It seemed like the authors were being very judgemental and single-minded about the art world and the way certain artists work and the things they are interested in. Especially the piece “Whose Mural Where?”. I though the author’s comments about Cristos’ work were very agressive. I hope we get a chance to talk about this to see what everyone else thought.
(My alarm was set for PM instead of AM and I missed this class. I set it to 24-hour time, so it shouldn’t happen again.)
I think that the mural tour brought up some intersting questions, like… how does public art coexist with members of a community, how does the artwork reflect upon that community or speak to its population. Murals are a very bold medium, they are available for public viewing and a lot of their significance derrives from their situation and context. They are acessable to anyone who happens by them… typically residents or members of the community. These public displays of artwork provide a mas messaging to the neighborhood, and usually revolve around community issues.
It is a great example of the way in which audience response influences the composition and motivation of a peice.
Creative works for public observation become a part of the environment and neighborhood, they correlate with the communities ideals and in return establish a kind of visual identity of the community as a whole. As such there is a touchy relationship between the inhabitants of a community and the artwork that represents them. It seems though that it is possible for the powers at be within a community can tailor public image by allowing certain visual expression and censoring others. It seemed that throughout the tour there were examples for both community based work (where the neighborhood was activley involved in design process) and community inspired work… (where some politician or benefactor could impose constructs and bias the visual expression of a community). AGAIN it seems that money/ power affects art. This class did get me thinking a lot about grafiti art and how it can transcend some of these financial limitations, and seems to undergo a jury by community residents. Anyway I hope we can elaborate on some of these ideas in class see you thurs…
I really loved looking at murals…they are a part of what I want to do as an artist but have felt theyve fallen into mainstream and most anything worth creating would be lost in a sea of awful, but seeing these murals helped me understand that this movement never dies and good work stands the test of time.
Whenever I think of murals, I often think of painted walls at nursery schools or churches. But these murals on the tour were anything but … They were well executed and crafted. I think that the quality of the mural contributes to the overall impact. It elevates it from a fun project to a piece of art. Work that is well executed somehow seems more accessible. The work is taken more seriously, and seems to indicate that care was taken in the making process; and therefore, care should be taken in the viewing. And a greater sense of respect is felt towards the piece … whether mural or even a gallery piece …
The tour of the murals helped to re-enforce that the cities and buildings need not look so plane.
When I was little and watching Sesamee Street there was an episode where they showed how a mural was made. Ever since then, one of my life goals has been to make a mural. Getting to see and learn about all the murals we saw on the tour really reminded me of that goal and gave me some good insight on the process.
When I see murals I stop to take in the artistic elements and decipher their meaning, but I think that part of my attraction to murals is due to the fact that I’m an artist. I wonder if murals have a similar impact on people who don’t have a strong interest in the arts.
From previous class we’ve talked about graffiti art and i didn’t really figure out what is there difference between mural work. Meeting mural artist and going an actual trip to see murals were amazing. I’ve never seen murals up closely, and the sizes of the collaboration works were incredible. Looking at murals on a field trip felt different to when i pass by work of art on public. i get more motivative to see murals when i was involved in class. As Kate mentioned I think being an artist see murals different to people who aren’t very interested in arts. I would like to know how i feel the murals differently compare to others. It was great to find out how much amount of artist gather to create wall murals, sculptures, etc. The communication seem to be the main key to process group murals on public space. How limited the murals be since they are placed on public? What would the art be accepted or abandoned? …
I think the murals are viewing the cultural of the places, and depended on it’s background. The murals are long lasting and it’s work of history. It was a wonderful field trip with the artist guest guiding us about the murals.
I was very suprsied when I saw my core class teacher’s works. Juan Chavez was my core class teacher 2 years ago. I was very into the murals during our field trip. It includes so many meanings of cultural issues and symbolic images were just so natural. Before I saw these murals, I thought that mural have no big difference between graffiti; however, lecture from Kiela Smith I figured out the difference beween mural and graffiti. Mural shows belief, faith and history which is extremely important to our future.
i enjoyed last week’s class. i was so excited seeing murals in person because i have never seen them before (just on the internet and books.)
The murals were little different than how I thought they would look like. Because when i think about murals, I get this boring images or just paintings on the wall without a story. However the murals that we saw last week had episodes and stories behind all of them. That was very interesting. i enjoyed watching the buildings with all these bright colors and the mosaics were great too!
Before this field trip when I thought of the murals it was merely paintings on the walls. Actually I didn’t know exactly what mural was..I thought it was like graffiti or something..I’ve never thought of how much work and process should be put on to create murals that have such meanings to it. It was nice to know who collaborated and the background of those murals and sculptures. Now I know what mural is!
ive always liked that idea of murals and generally just more color and design on all of the buildings that surround us, this trip gave me even more reason for my thought. i strongly dislike being surrounded by the same shades of browns and grays and i think that if buildings and structures were using a variety of colors it would one: being more pleasing to the eye and two: change the moods of people who view or even just walk past. the idea that a mural can be and often is a community project and an expression of the people who live by the work, is almost fascinating to me. their roots go so much deeper.
Because my art class in highschool was commisioned to make murals in different places in my neighborhood, I had great respect for the ones we saw last week. Our murals obviously did not compare to the ones we saw yet I can appreciate them so much because I know first hand how difficult it is to create them. I greatly enjoyed this field trip and look foward to tomorrows.
Hello all! Please excuse my absence on this blog up until this point this week, but I’ve been moving into my new apartment and I’m in the process of getting everything together and that includes getting the internet set up. As far as the trip this last week, I really like the idea of a work being public space. I’d really like to see a space that is 100% open to public work. A spot were anyone can add anything they want. I think at first it might be a bit overwhelming, but after the initial over-abundance of art being created and covered, it would calm down and be a great collage of all walks of life and possibly have a great complimentary look, or just the opposite. It could turn out to be the ultimate juxtaposition! This would really support the idea of art in a Democratic society.
It has never been clearer to me that murals take a ton of work and even more creativity. I think a lot of us are used to working alone in our own spaces to make pieces, but collaborating on a mural is definitely an effort. If we think it’s hard to find a time for all of us to meet for a group project, think of how difficult it must have been for all these people to complete the amazing murals!
I greatly enjoyed the field trip last class. I am very interested in murals and have painted a few myself, but I have never looked at murals in a way to better the community or bring the communtiy to a whole through a group effort. I know alot of “graffiti” thugs who clame to paint murals but have no appreciation or idea of the effort and unity it takes to make these larger than life works. it was a good awakening and a beautiful day to take my clouded mind away from the canvas and into a living enviorment.
i thought this fieldtrip was really valuable, especially because it showed people the power, importance, and effort a mural takes. i was involved in a project called “art in the allies” based in detroit. with this project, i became fully aware as to how complex and difficult murals are. as well, i saw the impact it has on the community. overall murals dont get as much hype as they should, and im glad this was an experience we could all be part of.
I think alot of what has been said comparing the murals we saw to graffiti is interesting, especially what michael just said, delineating the difference between a mural and graffiti as being the presence of the comunity in the piece. I’m all for the artist as an individual but what about when tat art is displayed in a location that is central or even just apparent to a community? Is an artist really entitled to force a community to look at their handiwork just because the artist happens to have a unique vision? I would have previously answered yes, but after seeing these murals which were of such high quality and learing about how the murals and the spaces they occupy interact with their surroundings, I’m not so sure that a “graffiti” artist can ethically put up a piece without seriously considering/involving the community that’s going to see it every day.
It was nice to see the murals since i was interested in it.
I liked all the graffiti works, too.
Especially, i loved the colors that the community used to make murals. I was pretty impressed when I saw the mosaic cave in the art garden. I went inside, and there were children’s casts, glasses, toy-diamonds, and so on. It was pretty impressive.
The mural tour was very inspiring and i enjoyed it very much. And the fact that we had a guest visitor there was really helpful and i was able to view murals in a diffrent way, and hear about how much work went into it, not only creating the murals but getting the whole community together, and to do something amazing like what was at the playgournd art garden where the kids would add in there own creative touch to the piece was really nice. I was able to learn alot about this trip and it got be thinking alittle bit diffrently about murals and how much of an impact they have on communities.
I was imperessed by the quality of each murals!
Beautiful color scheme that used was nice, and meaning or stories that each mural have touched my heart. To see these great murals and their culture, this field trip was nice to me. : )
I really enjoyed looking many kinds of different murals and other art works(mosaic). I’ve never been like community center so it was impressive experience to me. Also, one of staff was my core studio teacher so, the community mural work makes me miss my teacher a lot. It was very nice!!