a newspaper man adjusts his pen

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Breathing new life into Pittsburgh


Asian Valley, originally uploaded by Scott Beveridge.


PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Artist Ian Thomas applies the final strokes Friday to his eye-catching large public mural, one of many that have appeared in recent years on buildings in the Pittsburgh area over the past few years.

His is titled “Urban Lung,” and it can be found on the side of an Asian market along Penn Avenue in the city’s Strip District, a Mecca for bargain prices on fresh produce and gourmet foods. Thomas, of Butler, Pa., said he came up with the idea for his interpretation of an Asian river valley by talking with the building owner and people who work or live in the area.

The murals are the brainchild of a nonprofit corporation, The Sprout Fund, which formed in 2001 to bring communities together to develop innovative projects in hopes of finding solutions to the problems that face the region.

I think the murals work great to add some beauty to areas of the city with blight and give folks something to think about while stuck in traffic on the many outdated roads in the region.

Click here to check out the six other new murals that went up this year.

Click here to take a look at those from previous years.

Here is one from a previous year by Lucas Stock further up Penn Avenue at The Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health:

1 comment:

Amanda Gillooly said...

Dude, I totally almost snapped a picture of that mural last weekend. I thought it was way cool.