ART WITH A MESSAGE
Kyle Holbrook, founder of Moving the Lives of Kids’ Community Mural Project, contributes to the “Stop Gun Violence” mural Tuesday in Homewood. The new mural, at Homewood Avenue and Idlewild Street, is one of 10 planned for this summer.
Community members gathered in Homewood on Tuesday to mark the one-month anniversary of the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., with an anti-gun violence mural created by local nonprofit, Moving the Lives of Kids.
The new mural, located at Homewood Avenue and Idlewild Street, is one of 10 that Moving the Lives plans to paint this summer throughout the city through its Community Mural Project. According to founder and executive artist Kyle Holbrook, each of the 10 murals will have different designs, but the same painted message: “stop gun violence.”
Over the next several weeks, more than 100 young adults from Homewood and surrounding neighborhoods will create an antiviolence mural.
Representatives from the neighborhood’s religious and political organizations, as well as the NAACP and Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, gathered Tuesday morning to watch the artists lay the mural’s starting strokes.
Each of the artists contributing to the murals is paid, and works five days each week for six weeks. Hundreds of adults have participated in the program since it was founded in 2002.
“It’s an important message and art helps get the word out faster,” said Tysere Igles, one of the group’s muralists.
“And people should be able to see them in places that need them most,” added fellow artist, Parish Bey.
Mr. Holbrook explained that while gun violence affects everyone, the small group gathered at Homewood and Idlewild had been hit especially hard in recent weeks. Since starting the murals earlier this summer, two artists had lost friends or family members to gun violence.
Connie Moore, a Homewood resident, carried a large poster with a picture of her son. Ms. Moore explained that her son, Hosea Davis, was killed in January 2014 after he was shot 16 times with an assault rifle.
Mr. Davis was 37 when he died, and left behind five children, whom Ms. Moore said she now helps raise. She added that she also assumed his responsibilities as president of the Fathers Who Care Foundation, a community outreach program started by her son shortly before his death.
“Every morning I pray that my kids will come home. That’s how bad things have gotten,” Ms. Moore said. “But these murals give kids something to do, and they show we can come together peacefully.”
Tuesday’s initial strokes represent what Mr. Holbrook called the mural’s “underpainting,” an outline to guide artists throughout the painting process. Although the finished product promises to be both powerful and aesthetically pleasing, Mr. Holbrook explained he’s more concerned with the mural’s message.
“It’s our job as artists to make a statement,” he said. “We’re not interested in painting a pretty picture if it doesn't mean something.”
Madeline Kennedy: madelinekennedy@post-gazette.com, (412) 263-1449