Artist, property owner agree to paint over Stephen Foster mural

I’m not a historian.”

Mr. Raymer was commissioned by Ms. Patterson to create the piece in 2014 as a reflection of Lawrenceville’s history. Foster was born in 1826 in Lawrenceville and died in 1864; he is buried in nearby Allegheny Cemetery. The Lawrenceville Historical Society annually hosts “Doo Dah Days!” or the Stephen Foster Music and Heritage Festival, and Foster’s image has been used to promote the annual Rock All Night festival happening there this weekend.

While Mr. Raymer worked Thursday, a passerby stopped to thank him for the neighborhood beautification.

The 36-year-old Glassport native studied biomechanical engineering at Pitt, and his career took him to San Francisco for five years before he boomeranged back to Pittsburgh in 2010 to work first in telecommunications and then as an electrical engineer at Westinghouse.

He’d never formally studied art, other than a few elective classes at Pitt. But his hobby grew into a passion. A 2013 trip to the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, which is home to a huge collection of street murals, had a profound effect on him.

“I thought this is incredible. So I came home to Pittsburgh and bought some spray paint” and started painting on the side of his house nearby on 35th Street.

“Artwork was on my mind 24/7,” he said. He began to get steady work painting, enough that he left Westinghouse a year ago.

Among his largest works are a mural on the fencing and building of AAA Scrapyard in Lawrenceville of Marvel Comics character Magneto; a tropical scene of parrots in the courtyard of Cupka’s II on the South Side; and Roman-inspired scenes on the walls of Talia, Downtown.

“My main goal is just to make the city more beautiful,” he said. “I see blank canvases everywhere I look and I don’t want to be a detriment. I don’t want to be controversial. I just try to make the urban landscape look a little prettier than it was.”