“It’s a community that you never ask for anything,” says Shabazz. “People of all types, young and old, of different ethnicities, respond to beauty and color and the fact that other people have taken the time and energy to invest in them. »
“The murals are the result of such a collaborative effort,” Jones says. Collaboration is key to creating a mural, which leaves lasting effects on the local volunteers who participate. “I’ve seen people say twenty years later, ‘I painted that leaf or that bear.’ It’s a positive force for good, beauty and collective action that doesn’t happen every day in these people’s lives. »
However, it is not necessary to make art to feel its effects. “The conversation around environmental justice can be painful, it can even be hard to allow yourself to think about it sometimes. My dream is that this mural can help people connect to a subject that is hard to talk about but necessary for our survival,” says Jones. She hopes the sunny depiction of the mural will help locals imagine what could be, so they can help make that dream come true. “Without imagination, it is impossible to envision a better future. You first have to imagine it to know where you want to go,” she adds.
URBAN ART TO BRING LIFE TO A CITY
In the age of coronavirus, the impact of these odes to nature may be even greater, according to Jane Golden, founder and director of Mural Arts Philadelphia. “After being stuck indoors and feeling this great deprivation, our desire for the great outdoors is currently more pronounced,” she says. “There is a better valuation of localism. There are the birds and the trees of Philadelphia. How can we look around us, and not only see but also appreciate what constitutes our surroundings? We pay more attention to assets whose value we probably did not appreciate before. »
(Read: 8 cities for street art lovers.)
Golden emphasizes that urban murals are as much a symbol of liberation as they are of community. “The world is traumatized and much more fragile since COVID. Art is a way to heal. For the people around the mural, there is something uplifting, uplifting,” says Golden. “People yearn for more connection. Public art can provide it for them. Because of COVID, we are so disconnected from each other. The murals highlight a common humanity. »
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