On Tour

A Clifton Heights apprentice works on painting in architectural details

Because of the incessant way the Documentary team tours the ArtWorks project circuit, one might think we would have had enough of driving from project to project and seeing what’s going on there. But not so! Today Alex and I had a new ArtWorks experience (for us, at least): we went on an ArtWorks tour! On the tour, we went to four murals—Northside, South Cumminsville, Over-the-Rhine, and Clifton Heights.

Each mural is making stunning and inspiring progress. South Cumminsville’s mural design showcases a surreal style, using architectural arches to frame scenes from the neighborhood. With a summery blue sky completely painted in, the apprentices at South Cumminsville are now moving on to filling in details, such as the flying hotdogs and glowing red crystal ball, which both make starring appearances in the mural.

Similarly, Clifton Heights has filled in the broad swaths of colors needed for their mural and are now doing detail work, working specifically on the many architectural landmarks of Clifton Heights that are featured in the mural, such as the old Fairview German Language School building and Old St. George church.

Even if you don’t have a chance to go on a tour with ArtWorks, you should certainly make a point to take a small tour yourself. The summer will be finished all too soon, and your time to catch a “before and after” is running out!

Primary Colors

An Evanston apprentice begins to paint with bold colors and shapes

Though different in almost every respect, including size, shape, and colors being used, the Covington and Evanston Murals have both made progress in a very exciting way—they’ve begun adding color to their murals as of July 2^nd.

Muted grays, tans, and blues are emerging from the creamy background of Covington’s wall in the shapes of trees with complicated ridges of leaves, flittering blue birds, and people with large noses and wide eyes. A whimsical mural, the subdued palette being used will help to emphasize the antics of the many colorful animals that will roam throughout the mural’s panels, leading the viewer on a virtual tour of Covington and its landmarks.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Evanston mural. Big, bright, and bold, its large geometric shapes and intense colors immediately catch the eye of passersby, who stop to stare for moments on end before moving on their way. On such dim, cool days as the ones we’ve been having this week just before the 4^th of July, the paints that Evanston is working with seem almost to jump from their buckets and into the surrounding air, warming the landscape of Evanston with pale pink, rich blue, and vibrant orange.

So a colorful congratulations to those murals who’ve broken into their paint buckets: Covington and Evanston to be sure, but also Columbia Tusculum, Northside, and Clifton Heights. Not just a promise of the great things these murals are bringing to both the apprentices working on them and the communities of Greater Cincinnati, there’s also the simple fact that these colorful new visions are, in the words of one Evanston apprentice, “Really pretty.”