alanpmarrero Vine Street Mural, Cincinnati,OH

About the Project
In spring of 2005, I worked on a mural project for a Community-Based Enivronmental art class. A team of students were paired with kids from the neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine to develop murals to go on Vine Street, a main thorougfair in the neighborhood. I was teamed with a 12-year-old named Mike. The two of us proposed the following project.

The concept of the mural is to incorporate Over-the-Rhine with the image of the United States Flag. The stripes of the flag create the streets of Over-the-Rhine. The many different aspects of the community will be shown specifically in each block. Each block will contain a different “patch” that represents something from that block. This mural embraces the many different, positive aspects of Over-the-Rhine.

The mural will serve as a snapshot of Over-The-Rhine as viewed by the interns. The community's involvement is shown through the imagery that create the essential elements of the mural. It also has two viewing scales. From afar, it appears as a collage of the American Flag. Up close, you can see it is a map of the neighborhood, and each of the blocks represented. The small patches will require you to step right up to the piece to view each block. (the average size of the blocks is approximately 4 by 6 inches)

At the end of the quarter, Mike and I had created the background flag image on plywood and mapped out each of the blocks. The whole piece measured 6 by 8ft. Currently, there is a program of art students and kids in the neighborhood collecting the following objects:

• Sketches of a scene on the block
• Photography of a scene from the block
• Photography of architecture and people
• Found items (clothing, basketball)
• Fabrics

The mural is still being constructed, but the following are some images of how the final piece could look. The project should be installed by the end of summer 2005.

the original concept

the final design, however, the final look with each block filled in will not be realized until the mural is completed

I walked around with some of the kids and encouraged them to take pictures of what they would like to see on the mural and was quite impressed with what they took.

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