Archives: Mural Map

Good Work is a public art evolution of Brian Kaspr’s background in graphic design and typography reflecting both his love of lettering and of painting as a process. The mural was created using three overlapping layers of lettering, not intended to be read or to communicate an explicit message but to create a color field of energy, geometry, and abstracted letter forms. The mural Good Work was created with input from the folks at Good Work Institute who shared language with Kaspr that is core to the principals of the work they do but who also trusted the artist to express himself freely. Their only request was that the color green be included, as the location is called ” The Greenhouse” and that the ‘G’ of Good Work Institute be legible.

Artist Chris Victor, installed this large collage of aluminum road signs, steel posts and hardware reduced to a series of contours. Victor’s work often utilizes commonplace forms and found objects, alterring and recontextualizing them through play with place, scale, accumulation, omission and organization to shift our expectations, question the relationship between form and function and to cause us to be more attentive to the everyday.

Lady Pink, the legendary “first lady of graffitti, returned to O+ Festival in 2021 to the location of her 2016 mural, wrapping her vision around the other side of the building occupied by Latinx-owned business Express Latinos. Kingston Strong is a tapestry woven from Kingston’s rich history and present-day charm. The history of Kingston is represented through its well-known landmarks. The people that make up this vibrant community are represented through bright, bold colors that reflect the artist’s signature palette.

Three Sisters was painted by an artist of mixed indigenous descent (Pomo/Karuk) on a building that is an extension of the Fair Street Reformed Church which sits on the ancestral lands of the Munsee Lenape People. The relationship between the artwork and its context aims to provide an opportunity for acknowledgment, the restoration of representation and reclamation of space on stolen land. In advance of the production of this mural, the Reverend of Fair Street Reformed Church acknowledged, with the artist and her congregation, the violence, erasure and genocide caused by the Christian Church in the Americas to cultures and people that lived in harmony with the land before colonization. A commitment to an ongoing acknowledgement of harm was essential to placing Three Sisters in this charged space. The artist states ” People imagine that the Indians that were symbiotic with this land are in the past, no longer among us. But we are still HERE.” 

Three Sisters, speaks to both a very personal reflection by the artist and the intergenerational trauma borne throughout Indigenous peoples of the Americas as a result of the loss of land, language, culture, identity and life resulting from the violence, oppression and genocide of colonization. The three indigenous women pictured play different roles in a pictorial imagining of what needs to happen for to heal; one is grieving (crying), one is connecting to themselves and the past (offering flower to a shadow self), and one is nurturing for the future (pouring tears of colored water onto plants that are food for the future). The mural acknowledges cycles of violence, loss and trauma carried through families and cultures that have been oppressed, murdered, disenfranchised, removed from land and resources, and victim to violence in all of its forms. It is also about the one person in any family who, perhaps, has the ability to heal by being a mediator between the past and future while also calling us, more broadly, to acknowledge our own role in the healing that is needed in our communities.

To mark what would have been the 11th annual O+ Kingston Festival, but was put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, O+ asked Vince Ballantine to paint a mural portrait of a Kingston figure of his choosing. Ballentine decided to paint local bon vivant Uncle Willy, a fixture in both Kingston and nearby Rosendale, particularly in their dive bars, festivals and music venues. Uncle Willy is known for a costume-like wardrobe that often includes colorful robes, sparkly glasses and a crown. Ballantine mentored talented local teen (at the time) artist Tafari Saunders through this project, giving him access to his first mural making opportunity.

Rendered as a brilliant 360° image, in exaggerated color, on a retired brewery fermenter in front of Keegan Ales this sunset landscape is flipped upside down. This piece combines elements of nature; oxygen, sky, trees, flowers, and stars with street art style graffiti writing. The mural, created by Enz in honor of the late Tommy Keegan is titled Up is Down, in part, to refer to the way the world feels after his passing. Enz produced the aerosol landscape through the collaborative spirit of O+ and with the ongoing support of the Keegan Ales family.

Gaia and Lindsey Wolkowicz collaborated on this 230+ft long mural project for The Arc Mid-Hudson’s Pecora Center in Midtown Kingston. The mural was completed following a period of community input through surveys, conversations, presentations and (virtual) listening sessions with the people supported by The Arc Mid-Hudson, their self-advocate group, staff, direct support professionals and those who encounter the wall each day. Reflecting that input, the mural presents regional flowers, birds, butterflies, and a spectrum of hands, celebrating the freedom that comes through receiving support you deserve and the spectrum of abilities and identities represented within the The Arc Mid-Hudson community.

This mural illustrates the vast world present in the soil beneath our feet and aims to raise awareness on how the health of our soil impacts our food security, the quality of the air we breathe, and the health of humans, animals and the planet as a whole. Though the state of our soil is dire, we have an opportunity to remediate it through the practice of composting and regenerative agriculture. Composting is a way to reduce our carbon footprint and mitigate climate change. Our soil health is the reflection of our human health and we can all directly contribute to this cycle of regeneration integral to our soil, air and water quality through composting.