Mural: South Main!!

Last Thursday amid the icy temperature of the night local Memphis artist, Anthony D. Lee and friends, began the installation of his mural on South Main- the burgeoning Memphis art district. Many Rhodes students along with a few other local artists gathered to chat about Lee's trials and tribulations in the art world as well as to discuss the meaning of the mural he intended to place along the 700 foot concrete strip (below the train station). The large panel would be filled with 25 separate symbols, each possessing very tangible and widely relatable meanings. Varying from Memphis's own MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority) bus symbol, to the universal symbol for recycling. While these images all seemed rather trivial and simplistic, Lee spoke on the way people relate differently to these symbols and the transformation they undergo when depicted on such a large and public scale. He was right. We all layered up our winter gear until our human forms were no longer discernible and headed over to long wall. Although we were all chilled down to our bones, everybody kept good spirits. Laughing and painting side by side rollers and chip brushes in hand. The artist had even set up a small heated van with hot chocolate and other refreshments whenever we got too cold to hold a paintbrush. It really was a great way to meet new students interested and art and do something different for a change. We all also, and maybe unnecessarily so, we conscious of this small effort we were making to "change" Memphis for the better. Wondering how passers-by would react and interact with the new life on the once bare wall. Would the barren area surrounding it take on a new personality from this moment on. I believe that the answer is yes. For even after completing a measly 2 or 3 symbols, when you stepped back the whole feeling of the wall and everything around it changed. The powerful warm orange hues gave you an immediate sense of happiness and comfort in your place- despite the fact that it was seven degrees fahrenheit, dark, and empty. This is is the power of public art. I hope many more of these group murals continue to take form around the entire city. It will undoubtedly change the way we all feel in and about our city.