Longest Mural in DC

Graffiti art usually isn’t my thing, but seeing this mural that is being painted in DC helped open my eyes to some real talent. Firstly, spray paint is a hard medium to control. I have used it for a bunch of my decorative painting projects. It takes skill to get this kind of refinement in some sections of this mural.

Secondly, these artists are helping to revitalize a rather downtrodden area. Dan Zach describes the five artists Collective Vision in his article, Let’s Spray. The mural is along a formerly blank 500 foot stretch of retaining wall in the Edgewood area of DC, near Rhode Island Avenue. My husband used to work nearby off Massachusetts Ave. for years and then later used to travel this stretch every morning while taking our boys to their middle/high school. This area can use some resurgence.

It was interesting reading about the artists varied backgrounds: Quest Skinner, teaches art students from pre-kindergarten to middle school; Pose 2, is from San Diego and has designed ads for Nike and Adidas; Joshua Mays, is from Philadelphia and has done some of the many large scale murals there; Decoy’s work is large scale, lined-based; and Chor Boogie is from San Francisco and has done commissioned work in Beijing, Dubai and Australia and even painted a portrait for Hugh Hefner. These are varied backgrounds and so is the art: vibrant abstract swirls to realistic faces and flowers, to solid flat forms to a Daliesque face painted with surreal, clock-like-mechanisms. The panorama link through the Washington Post article is worth clicking to see the mural expanse and to hear the artists describe their work all to the audio backdrop of spray cans shaking and misting — working away.