Parisian Wall Art

Parisian mural by Jerome Mesnager
(photo from BBC)

The BBC provided a Power Point-style report on Parisian murals which looks better than it reads. The images illuminate the notion that art can enliven urban spaces. Cities that take risks in this area, such as Philadelphia, Miami, and Los Angeles, have strongly benefitted from this approach. If content yearns to be free, then walls yearn to be painted.

Subi Roberto's Downtown Miami Mural Project Completed

Ms. Roberto's Mural (photo from Miami Downtown News)

I'm a sucker for murals. I enjoy looking at building-scale, urban murals, such as those spawned by Philadelphia's innovative Mural Arts Program. A New Jersey-based artist my wife and I know, Dan Fenelon, creates murals in high-energy, low-income areas as well as for ambitious regional museums. His work is consistently interesting. When he discusses his projects, Fenelon exudes an energy and joy that seem connected to the venues and the audience experience of the murals. (I mentioned Fenelon's work in a recent blog post about an art walk in Montclair, New Jersey.)

Recently, self-trained artist Subi Roberto recently completed a mural on a building in Miami's emerging arts district. The work's style, from what I can determine from photographs, fits the monumental scale murals typically require. The pictures, and an associated story about Roberto's project, appear in today's online editions of the Miami Herald.

One curiosity is Ms. Roberto's background. According to the Herald article, the Miami-based artist "was raised on a Hindu commune in West Virginia until age 17 when she moved with her parents to Hawaii..." Roberto never went to art school. Ironically, her moment of inspiration came from looking at an art magazine which included a story about a gallery that sold something for $750,000.

In that moment an artist was born.