HOW PHILLY MOVES

HOW PHILLY MOVES

Acrylic Paint on Polytab

2011

86,000 square feet

Philadelphia International Airport

This is the largest mural in Philadelphia. It stretches approximately a half mile across six parking structures at the Philadelphia International Airport. I lead a team of 8 full time assistant artists to complete the project in just under a year. Close to 2,000 community volunteers participated in the painting of the project through public paint days. The mural is based on the images of Philadelphia photographer JJ Tiziou. Over the course of a year leading up to the creation of the project he held photoshoots at various locations around Philadelphia to gather the images we would use in the creation of this mega mural.

This project is an amazing example of the artistic engineering that goes into creating such a massive, multi-faceted piece of public art.

This project was sponsored, funded, and facilitated by the Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia Parking Aurthority, Bank of America, PTS Foundation, US Airways, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, Local 21, and Mural Arts Philadelphia

A look at the process

This image was taken from a helicopter. This mega mural is so massive that the only way you can get a view of the entire thing without obstruction is from the air.

The Gallery shopping mall on Market Street donated an unused retail space for us to use as a studio for the duration of the project.

Photographer JJ Tiziou joins our mural team for a walk through of the parking garage prior to production.

1,507 sheets of polytab were used to create this mega mural. The first moth of the project was occupied by measuring, cutting, priming, and hanging sheets of cloth.

Charlie working on the palette..

Each of the 26 figures on the wall were treated as their own individual mural. Each having its own color palette. Behind Laura at the mixing table, you can see two of the figures in the form of printed reference photos tacked to the wall with the color chart between them.

Laura working on one of the first portraits completed for the project.

The retail space The Gallery allowed us to use was huge. Once we were finished with a figure, we would lay it out on the floor for touch up.

In a second unused space a small group of assistants were hard at work projecting sheets that would then shift to the painting studio.

Studio Detail.

Each printed sheet represents one sheet of polytab. These are the reference images for the Mayan dancer. The model’s name is Cesar Viveros and he is also a muralist in Philadelphia.