Artist Statement for 2006 Sprout Mural Competition:
Life and Liberty
By Alison Zapata

Definitely worth seeing, this impressive mural design is true to the art deco style. It is complex with symbolism of life, liberty, transportation, and interactive elements.

Greatly inspired by the courage of the Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata’s famous slogan, “Tierra y Libertad,� (Land and Liberty), I have proudly entitled this mural design Life and Liberty.

Regardless of a child’s situation, it is the role of the community to raise our children to a higher level within our society, one person at a time. This mural conveys the idea of positive change through personal connections into a bright and open future.

The child is a symbol of life; the woman standing on the keystone is a symbol of liberty, together they belong to the whole world. A symbol of strength, she is the community pulling up the next generation, moving us into our future, unified and empowered more than ever.

The theme of transportation, unique to Pittsburgh, layered throughout the composition, creates a feeling of moving forward. The colors and style allude to the sophistication of our cosmopolitan city.

Press Release:
The Sprout Fund is pleased to announce the 2006 Sprout Public Art Preliminary Design Exhibition. This one night only exhibition on Friday, May 12, 2006, from 6:00-8:00pm at Three Rivers Arts Festival, at 937 Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh will showcase the preliminary mural designs created by local artists competing for the community mural sites.

24 local artists are competing for seven new community mural sites in Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas of Allegheny County.

The goal of the preliminary design process is for an artist to present his or her own original vision for the mural as inspired by the ideas and subject matter expressed by the community. Artists have two weeks to prepare a fully painted preliminary design. These designs are shown for the first time in this exhibition which serves as a means for each community to select one final artist to become their muralist for the season.

It was a fantastic night, many thanks to all who came out to support all of the artists!
Special thanks to Ruth Hendricks for the great photos!!!!!!!!!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 26th, 2006 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Paintings, Murals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.