Sun/Moon

Local graffiti artist ENZ has been painting in his home streets for years. In his genre-defying piece “Sun/Moon”, he blends Hudson River Valley landscape elements of pine trees, a dramatic sunset and bald eagles with psychedelic flair. The artist explores the idea of home as planet earth balanced between our life-giving sun and tide-regulating moon, stylized into mandala. His graffiti moniker “ENZ” emblazoned in the foreground activates and proclaims, “This is my home.” A campfire invites one closer and echoes the fiery sunset. NOTE: This mural has been de-installed.

Vignettes of Home

Hudson Valley painter Jane Bloodgood-Abrams is inspired by the iconic landscape of the region and the artistic heritage of the Hudson River School. The three luminous portals that make up her O+ mural allow the viewer to reflect on the imagery of the landscape beyond the city. She states that, “It helps show the interconnection of artists and others, past and present, who choose to make this region their home based on in no small part, the natural beauty.”

Between Realms We Grow Roots

Brooklyn-based artist Jia Sung, who assisted Jess X. Snow on “O Wind Take Me to My Country” mural in 2016, returned to Kingston to paint Snow as a muse. The figure of the queer Asian-Canadian artist, poet and filmmaker is situated between the realms of sun and moon to illustrate the complex relationship of a migrant to their homeland and where they now find themselves struggling to assimilate. Sung depicted Snow opening their heart space to grow roots in a “gesture of devotion and defiance, challenge and vulnerability.”

Pretty Nose & Dakota Unity Riders

The mission of East Coast-based artist and environmental activist Lopi LaRoe aka LMNOPI is to give a voice to the voiceless through art. Pretty Nose was an Arapaho woman war chief who is believed to have participated in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. “History tends to place the emphasis on the experiences and deeds of the Native American men while the women remain a mystery,” LMNOPI writes. “This mural is a dedication to the lives of those women whose stories remain unknown, only for our imaginations to invent.”

Bops & Tottoms

Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn are a Baltimore-based duo that strive to bring playfulness to public spaces and enhance people’s lives through public art. They believe that the aesthetics of one’s environment can influence their state of mind and each piece and palette are specifically designed for its location. With a passion for people and design, Jessie and Katey bring life to unsung spaces and their work explores movement and symmetry, bold color combinations, patterns in nature and woven textiles.

Survivor Love Letter

This mural tells the origin story of the Survivor Love Letter project, founded by Tani Ikeda, as painted by O+ artists Jess X. Snow and Layqa Nuna Yawar. Ikeda wrote a love letter to her younger self on the anniversary of her sexual assault: “Dear Survivor: to love yourself is to become free.” The mural features a double portrait of Ikeda comforting her younger self along with her words and those of Kingston-area survivors of sexual violence who participated in a facilitated workshop. Floating lily pads, flowering St. John’s Wort and monarch butterflies remind us that, like nature, we can transform and heal from trauma by loving and tending ourselves. It is the first of many monumental murals that celebrates queer and trans survivors of color around the country.

M’YMCA

Woodstock-based, Dominican Republic-born, artist Julia Santos Solomon created this image as a welcoming, healing and inclusive tableau representing various aspects of the diverse history and heritage of the residents of Kingston’s Midtown neighborhood. The artist collaborated with volunteers from the YMCA art club to develop and execute the mural.

Ainʼt I Woman?

Abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth, who was born into slavery in Ulster County, NY, and later escaped to freedom, electrified audiences at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Ohio with her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. Doctor-turned-mural artist Chip Thomas aka jetsonorama of The Painted Desert Project, and collaborator Jess X. Snow, honored Truth’s contribution to the women’s rights movement and her role as a humanitarian by asking African-American female poets to share poems pertaining to African-American womanhood. Poets Mahogany Browne and T’ai Freedom Ford are depicted with their poems embedded in each portrait.

Shadows of Our Ancestors

Lucinda Yrene Hinojos aka La Morena is a fourth generation Chicana/Apache/Pima whose intergenerational tableau depicts the artist’s grandmother, Irene Arollo; her daughter, Gisele DeLeon; and niece, Mizeyli Lopez sharing in traditional healing practices from their Curanderismo lineage. In the foreground are a pair of colibrí (hummingbirds)—the spirit animal of the artist, her spirit messenger and light worker. Family is a universal experience of all peoples, and consciously or unconsciously we sit in our ancestors’ shadows, casting our shadows onto future generations.

O Wind, Take Me to My Country

NYC-based artist Jess X. Snow created a three-story mural featuring a portrait of Sudanese-migrant poet Safia Elhillo. It is painted in solidarity with and celebration of millions of migrant mothers, peoples and animals of the sea and sky, crossing borders, oceans and deserts in search of home. “Does the ocean and Earth not embrace us the way it does the animals and plants?” Snow asks. “If so, every border drawn is an unnatural act of violence against the Earth and ourselves.” The mural is partially inspired by Elhillo’s poem, which notes two Arabic words that are homophones: one means wind, the other means love.