Skyline Fine Time: At Ten, An All-U-Can-Eat Buffet of Downtown Pittsburgh

February 26, 2023Leave a comment

mural of people in vestments praying with skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Holy City. A mural featuring the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, Homewood

Man, I hope you came ready to eat.

It’s been a been more than a year since The Orbit served up its last over-the-top feast of all things skyline-shaped, themed, printed, and painted, so you have a right to be hungry.

And O! What a meal we’ve prepared for the skyline-starved today! Murals with downtown Pittsburgh as both star and supporting player. Business signage to either boast one’s 412 bona fides or pander to us yokels from a corporate office far, far away. Hand-created tributes as extracurricular activity spray painted onto bicycle paths and inked onto city steps railings.

mural with view of downtown Pittsburgh skyline — The city with a disembodied foot: mural, Perry Hilltop

All that—and more—awaits diners at this all-u-can-eat buffet of bridges, The Point, Steel Tower, PPG, and the rest. Grab a fork and knife, don’t waste your time on rolls—those are for suckers—and dig into a legitimate, if figurative, smorgasbord of Your Favorite City™ put on the pedestal it deserves … or, at least, thinks it deserves when it’s not too down on itself.

If somehow you’re still hungry for more, you can always go back to skyline stories one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine part 1 and 2, you know, just to tide you over.

colorful mural of downtown Pittsburgh rendered in cubist style — Cubist City: mural, Love Pittsburgh, Strip District

mural of downtown Pittsburgh awash with river water — Flood City: mural, Ketchup City, Sharpsburg

mural in arcade including downtown Pittsburgh skyline with cartoon zombies — Undead City: mural, Zombieburgh, Monroeville Mall

mural including many musicians and skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Music City: mural (detail), Homewood

mural on side of row house featuring shoe designer and downtown Pittsburgh — Shoe City: mural, Mexican War Streets, North Side

painting of downtown Pittsburgh skyline with sparkles — Sparkle City: The Color Park, South Side

mural for coffee shop with skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Pittsburgh: where the coffee flows like a tidal wave. Adda Coffee, Garfield

painting of downtown Pittsburgh skyline hung on sagging canvas in warehouse — Sagging City: mural, Art All Night 2022

pen drawing of downtown Pittsburgh skyline drawn on handrail for public steps — Step City: handrail drawing, Polish Hill

barber shop sign including skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — ‘Do City: Pittsburgh Cuts & Styles, Wilkinsburg

mural in shop window including skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Green City: Patagonia, Shadyside

sign for gym featuring stylized image of downtown Pittsburgh — It’s 9:10 somewhere. Downtown Pittsburgh plus the old Duquesne Brewery clock, Crossfit Athletics, South Side

electrician's van with image of skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Emerald City: Emerald Electrical Services van

electrician's van decorated with stylized silhouette of downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Electric City: A to Z Quality Electric

Iconic City … at least we hope this is a super-stylized image of The Point and downtown buildings and not something more sinister

label for handmade soap including downtown Pittsburgh with bubbles and rubber ducky — Bubble City: Up in Suds Soap

beer sign with downtown Pittsburgh in faux-neon — Buy-a-Lady-a-Drink City: Stella Artois beer sign

retail sign including skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Paradise City: Winner’s Paradise, Wilkinsburg

A city with high heels and rubber balls: Steel City Kickers League, Lawrenceville

business sign with silhouette of downtown Pittsburgh skyline — River (Trail) City: River Trail Cafe, North Side

window decal with silhouette of downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Food City: Pittsburgh Restaurant Week office, North Side

sign for Pittsburgh neighborway with skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — This is why we can’t have nice things. PGH DOMI neighborway signage, Lawrenceville

Paws Across Pittsburgh, Tarentum

sign for retail store including skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — Sideways City: Cohen’s Collectibles & More, Regent Square

Coker’s Gold: Art Sheds of the Wizard of Perry South

November 6, 20222 Comments

large metal shed painted in elaborate abstract panels — One of two sheet metal work sheds painted by the artist Coker, The Wizard of Perry South

A blast of color. Soft pinks, big reds, cool blues and purples on one face; rusty reds, browns, and blacks another. Everything is accented in gold.

That gold! It’s a gold of ancient secrets and the gold of a new dawn. The warm glow has an extra glossy shine that elevates already-textured steel surfaces to a fourth dimension—something beyond space and time. What the amateur sees as mere spray paint is actually a fuzzy overlay on reality from another world.

Cast against the very literal rust of a pair of weathered steel sheds, the gold feels like flashes of light glinting and gleaming through stony creek water. Precious metal to some, fool’s gold to others, but with an experiential value beyond anything we can measure. That is, if you can climb out of 3-D and into this transformative plane.

colorful abstract designs painted on metal shed panels — J-E-S-U-S, gold. Detail, Shed 1

In glorious full sunshine, surrounded by high summer’s lush greenery, the two old metal work sheds pop from the earth like temporary housing created by interstellar travelers. We may not speak their tongue, but these pictorial representations of stars and symbols, geometric patterns and light rays communicate enough otherworldly visions that we can get along.

Getting along is exactly what we want to do—very much so. The work is striking and soothing, both chaotic and patterned, with obvious iconography and wild abstraction. Like waves crashing on the beach or mountaintops viewed from a neighboring peak, one may stare into the wide murals, let the eyes go into a glazed soft-focus, and drift off to a blissed-out zen state where nothing looks the same way twice.

colorful abstract designs painted on metal shed doors — Notation for an impossible score. Detail, Shed 1

The artist who painted the sheet metal sheds has signed the work only as Coker, his last name—this much we know. We’d love to do a full-on Orbit artist profile on the man—there are so many questions! Does he also make smaller works? paintings? sculptures? what’s inside the sheds? It feels like there simply must be an amazing story there.

But … the volume of No Trespassing and Stay Out signs posted around the property suggest Coker is, at minimum, wary of uninvited guests and this we respect. I’ve visited the buildings a half dozen times over the course of a year-and-a-half, on various early mornings, mid-days, and weekends and left notes for Mr. Coker. Alas, I’ve never heard back and never managed to catch him in person. So … we’re left to muse about The Wizard of Perry South from his (street-visible) painted walls alone.

Shed 1, south profile

Coker’s most profound work—to these highly-opinionated eyeballs—remains the large abstract wall sections. “They’re like (Marc) Chagall!” Ms. Orbit exclaimed when your author produced his first photographs of the remarkable structures. That said, the artist’s paint work extends to more representational fare as well.

A corner wall section of the first shed includes tributes to Barrack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marvin Gaye, George Benson, and Snoop Dogg (in the form of gin & juice, illustrated with musical notes). Another celebrates the music of ’70s soul group Maze and includes the band’s bizarre seven-fingered hand logo. Elsewhere King Kong tramples New York while a bloated “fake news scum-bag”—not sure who that could be—tramples democracy.

metal shed painted with tributes to Barrack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marvin Gaye, George Benson, and the text "gin & juice" — Tributes to Barrack Obama, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marvin Gaye, George Benson, and gin & juice

Tribute to Frankie Beverly & Maze on metal shed doors — “Man Swamp”: Tribute to Frankie Beverly & Maze

painting of King Kong on metal shed — King Kong

painting of Donald Trump on metal shed with sign reading "Fake news scum-bag" — “Fake news scum-bag”

painting of downtown Pittsburgh skyline on wood panel on front porch of small house — Outside art / Pittsburgh skyline

Just down the block sits the third unmistakable Coker property. It’s a classic Pittsburgh two-up/two-down brick row house—now having outlived all former neighbors on a half-block-long dead end. The front of the home is painted in Coker’s tell-tale gold, daringly paired with splotchy silver—a color combination that makes even pink & brown stand up and take notice. Around the side, Coker has continued the blocky, abstract themes begun on the pair of sheds, but this time executed in gold, black, and white.

brick row house painted gold and silver — House Coker

abstract mural painted on masonry wall — Mural, House Coker (detail)

We could all use more magic in our lives—of this I’m sure. Luckily, we live in a time and place where one may stumble upon just that, right out in the open, on a simple summer bicycle ride or autumnal constitutional through a city neighborhood.

If you’re lucky enough to live in The Perrys, you know where Compound Coker is already. For anyone who doesn’t, we’ll not spoil the surprise with a precise address or instructions for travel. There’s enough information right here to locate Pittsburgh’s buried treasure of gold (art), it’s up to you to go out and find it.

An arrow to the aether. Shed 2 profile

The Art of the Wheel: Master Mechanics, Amateur Painters

April 3, 20222 Comments

hand-painted sign for TNT Monster Mechanic, Beaver Falls, PA — Who wouldn’t want the Tasmanian Devil fixing their timing belt? One of many examples of great auto repair artwork. TNT Monster Mechanic, Beaver Falls

The Tasmanian Devil—all sinister fangs, seething anger, and whirling destruction—seems an odd candidate for the kind of precision work required for automotive repair. But there he is—crazy eyes, giant jaw agape, and squeezed tube of toothpaste body—clutching a box socket in one hand and a crescent wrench in the other on the brick wall of TNT Monster Mechanic in Beaver Falls.

Taz, as the popular Looney Tunes character is sometimes known, has a well-documented following that way outreaches the limited run of his original short cartoons. He’s a famously popular pop icon who exists in a sweet spot between lovable cartoon character and hyper-masculine bad boy who acts first and thinks … never. The podcast Decoder Ring did a terrific episode on tattoos that talked about Taz’ stranglehold on the upper arms of young men. Some of those biceps work on cars.

mural of automobile shock absorbers on brick wall of garage — It’s shocking where you can find great art, but you mustache yourself if you’re really looking. North Side

mural for auto repair shop of two mechanics working on car engine — Blue period. Neal N Tony’s Automotive Repair, Larimer

Auto repair shops are, almost always, structures of pure utilitarian economy. Typically constructed of brick or cinder block and lit by big fluorescent shop lights, they often contain no windows aside from what comes through the office door, garage openings, and the occasional glass block. This leaves a lot of exterior wall space available for decoration.

Most garages are as down-to-basics on the street-facing walls as the buildings that house them are plain … but not all of them. There is a particular phenomenon where mechanics have set down the wrench and picked up the paintbrush (or found others to do so) to elaborately advertise their businesses in ways both humorous and boastful, triumphant and goofy. These murals, 3-D painted cut-outs, and custom airbrush jobs all make up The Art of the Wheel.

handmade artwork of car wheel with fire attached to masonry wall — This wheel’s on fire—even if it’s where birds nest. Hobbs Tire & Supply, Chester, WV

mural of dog's head fused onto speeding wheel — This dog’s rabid … and thankfully still on the chain. Big Dawg’s Performance, Vandergrift

Auto Repair artwork is a gift that just keeps giving. There seem to be piston-packing Picassos and revved-up Rembrandts just about everywhere people drive cars. If you’ve got a favorite we didn’t get to (this time), give us a holler and we’ll bag it for the inevitable sequel.

Until then, keep your foot on the gas and your eyes on the garage walls.

ghost sign of mechanic repairing flat tire — Back when mechanics wore bow ties. Mechanic on Duty/Tires (ghost sign), Homestead

auto tow truck painted with image of cartoon tow truck — (Big Daddy) Henry’s*, McKees Rocks

mural of auto engine on exterior wall of garage — Bernie’s Garage, Polish Hill

painting of large spark plug on cinderblock wall — Plugged-in. Bernie’s Garage, Polish Hill

Hocus Ford Focus. Transmission Magician (before the building was repainted), Bloomfield

hand-painted sign for German Motor Werks including large gear — Sprockets. German Motor Werks, Strip District

hand-painted sign/mural for Halblieb Automotive — Give ’em the hook! Halbleib Automotive, Hazelwood

hand-painted mural of engine on cinderblock wall — … and the shaft! Halbleib Automotive, Hazelwood

mural on cinderblock wall of 1960s Ford Mustang for Auto Works repair shop — Stay chassis**. Auto Works, Munhall

brick building with advertisements for auto supply shop — (unknown) Auto Supply, Donora

"Auto Parts" sign painted on masonry walllll — Auto Parts, Hill District

mural for All American Transmission Company with company name in giant waving American flag — All American Transmission Co., Millvale

hand-painted sign for Uneeda Tire Co., Beaver Falls, PA — No, YOU need a tire! Uneeda Tire Co., Beaver Falls

"Hydraulic Hoses" sign painted on masonry walllll — Hoses simple. Hydraulic Hoses, Hill District

entrance to mechanic shop including wooden model car — Model Model-T, Sacco’s Automotive Services, Sharpsburg

hand-painted sign for Peck Auto Electric, Logan, Ohio — Peck Auto Electric, Logan, O.

graffiti-style sign reading "Window Tint" on garage — Window Tint, Ambridge

brick auto repair garage with name in painted brick — Zovko’s Garage, South Side

barely readable sign advertising bodyshop — Ghost bodyshop, Lincoln-Lemington

* The artwork for Henry’s feels like a clear homage to the over-the-top cartoon hot rod artwork of Ed “Big Daddy” “Rat Fink” Roth … but maybe it’s just coincidence.
** Yes, the mural for Auto Works, featuring the body of a 1960s Ford Mustang, does not include the chassis.

Skyline Nine Times, Part 1: Let’s Talk About Murals

January 16, 2022January 23, 2022Leave a comment

detail of mural depicting stylized downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Bright lights, mid-sized city. Mural depicting downtown Pittsburgh … or, at least, PPG Tower is represented, Uptown

Tall towers thrust skyward into a night sky lit up in aurora borealis-like technicolor fantasia. The buildings, black in darkness but each lit from hundreds of glowing window insets, cant in wild directions with the hyperextended angularity of so much German expressionism.

The painting covers a full exterior wall on a little building on Gist Street, Uptown. Whether or not it’s supposed to represent downtown Pittsburgh is questionable, but with the spiky spires of PPG Tower clear in the foreground the mural must at least be inspired by its host city.

mural on brick wall with downtown Pittsburgh skyline and the Eiffel Tower — The Paris of Appalachia. Frenchi’s, Oakland

Like tribbles, vape shops, and yes, Omicron cases, art and design representations of downtown Pittsburgh’s skyline seem to mutate and regenerate at an exponential rate. Why this, our ninth story on the subject, had so many new skylines collected in just the last few months that we’re breaking the recent arrivals into two parts.

This then is Part 1: Let’s talk about murals where we get down with original artistic creations painted directly to brick, cinderblock, and plaster (plus one “outside art” painting). Next week, we’ll be back with Part 2: Designs, Signs, and Outlines.

Until then, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the skyline.

detail from mural featuring downtown Pittsburgh in shades of purple — Erotic City I. Strip District

Mural of downtown Pittsburgh with monkeys holding wrenches — Erotic City II (with monkey mechanics!). Apex Auto, South Side

Mural of Gulf Tower on rounded brick wall — If you have to pick just *one* skyline element… Gulf Tower, Strip District/Downtown

detail from mural featuring downtown Pittsburgh with jigsaw puzzle pieces — A puzzling city. Uptown

mural depicting yellow bridge and downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Revolution City! Spirit, Lawrenceville

mural of yellow bridge and downtown buildings — Roaming City … but parking is reserved for K-2 employees. K-2 Market, Garfield

mural of woman, farm, vegetables, and downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Earth Mother/Vegetable City. East End Food Co-op, North Point Breeze

detail from mural featuring tops of downtown Pittsburgh's tallest buildings — A Strip District view of the city. Strip District

detail of mural including section of downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Green City. Uptown

mural including crude rendering of downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Flood City. Beltzhoover

shipping container painted with mural including Pittsburgh skyline — The city aglow. Mobile stage, Three Rivers Arts Festival

detail from mural featuring downtown Pittsburgh skyline — A sketch of a city. Salem’s Market, Strip District

large mural including skyline of downtown Pittsburgh — The city with a little bit of everything. Manchester

Skyline Fine Time: Eight Probably Isn’t Enough

May 23, 20211 Comment

rough painted metal with Pittsburgh skyline and text "City of Champions" — Worlds collide! Sheet metal pole art skyline, Hill District

In the wild hillside that runs between Bigelow Blvd. and The Middle Hill, there is an oasis of street art (err … steps art? tree art?) clustered in the forgotten land around one particular set of city steps. There are sculptures and collages, weird art photos and paintings on wood. Our favorite tin can pole artist has a whole trove of terrific pieces here.

Maybe we’ll do a story on the whole thing at some point, but it was one particular piece, nailed to a utility pole, that caught the attention on this day. In it, the artist has taken a discarded piece of sheet metal and painted a rough but unmistakable black silhouette of the downtown Pittsburgh skyline. There are the spiky towers of PPG and the peaked triangles of The Gulf Tower and Koppers Building. The artwork is inscribed with the simple throwback message City of Champions.

store window display of artist painted iconic buildings of Pittsburgh with light bulbs — Bright lights, big city. AlphaGraphics, Downtown

Mere minutes–OK, it was probably a couple hours–after posting our last trip down skyline way, there it was again. The artist who hand-painted the storefront for the old Yinzers in the Burgh didn’t have a lot of vertical room to work with, but made the most of what s/he did have. In city official black-and-gold–but squashed as if in the footpath on one of Godzilla’s benders–the downtown Pittsburgh skyline is still undeniable.

So, here you go, Pittsburgh: another couple dozen+ graphic renderings of the downtown skyline coming from storefronts and retail signage, community groups and folk art. Like that famous body part/Van Patten, eight of these collections should be more than enough, but this is a gift that just keeps on giving. I’m sure we’ll be back with #9 in the series soon enough.

closed storefront of Yinzers in the Burgh with hand-painted Pittsburgh skyline — Squashed city. Yinzers in the Burgh, Strip District

Turner's Tea van with graphics of the Pittsburgh skyline parked in front of ornate church — Debatable number of “T”s/teas city. Turner’s Iced Tea truck, Bloomfield

box truck with painted with mural including the Pittsburgh skyline and the word "Reggae" — Iriesburgh. The Reggae supply truck, Hill District

mural detail of downtown Pittsburgh buildings with eyes — The city has eyes. Spirit, Lawrenceville

signage for My Dogz on the Run food truck including silhouette of Pittsburgh skyline — Big mouth city. My Dogz on the Run food truck

Red, black, and green city. PURR: Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters logo (electronic)

mural on brick wall featuring cartoon-like painting of downtown Pittsburgh — Birds and bee city. LaScola’s Italian Ice and Custard, Highland Park

simple line painting on brick of downtown Pittsburgh buildings and bridge — Simple city. Rolling Pepperoni, Lawrenceville

mural on restaurant's exterior wall showing bridge and downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Bridge city. Rumi Grill, North Oakland

Condiment city. Ketchup City Creative, Sharpsburg

pickup truck with graphic of downtown Pittsburgh buildings — Clean city. Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership Clean Team

panel truck advertising Rivertown Brewing with silhouette of the downtown Pittsburgh skyline — River city. Rivertowne Brewing truck

Sunrise city I. Pittsburgh Window Film

Sunrise city II. Aishel Real Estate

Jagged city. Pittsburgh Kids Foundation, Downtown

window sign for Pulse including abstracted downtown Pittsburgh skyline — 8-bit city. Pulse, Garfield

Outline city. City Collision, Strip District

sign for Pittsburgh Truck & Tow including silhouette of the downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Tow city. Pittsburgh Truck & Tow, Sharpsburg

car with wrap advertising for Pittsburgh Property Remodelers — Gray city. Pittsburgh Property Remodelers car wrap, Stanton Heights

yard sign for Bill Peduto as Pittsburgh city mayor including the downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Shades of a blue city. Peduto for mayor yard sign [Note: not a posthumous endorsement, just reporting here]

window sign for City Grows featuring downtown Pittsburgh buildings as growing grass — Green infrastructure. City Grows, Lawrenceville

sticker with silhouette of downtown Pittsburgh skyline and text "Paris of Appalachia" — Paris of Appalachia sticker (Commonwealth Press)

outline of downtown Pittsburgh skyline spray painted on cement walkway — Graffiti city. Ft. Duquesne Bridge

pro-vote sign taped to street sign — Black-and-gold city. VOTE, Hill District

sticker for "Dabsburgh" including stylized downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Dabsburgh sticker, Bloomfield

vinyl sign for Tessaro's restaurant including stylized downtown Pittsburgh skyline — Flame-grilled city. Tessaro’s, Bloomfield

Walk This Way: Millvale’s Art Crosswalks

January 31, 20211 Comment

crosswalk mural of woman with wild multicolor hair

Wild hair. Crosswalk mural at Sedgwick Street and Grant Ave., Millvale

While no one wants to be a doormat, we might all wistfully hope to be a crosswalk. At least, we would if we were rendered this lovingly.

Standing on the corner, the woman in the street is quite the vision. With a plain face and porcelain skin, she is more antique doll than real flesh and blood. It is her hair, though–a psychedelic swirl of curled pinks, mauves, and orange locks spread out across a technicolor rainbow backdrop–that gets the well-deserved focus here.

The mural is painted across Sedgwick Street, in Millvale. It is one of a couple dozen similar murals painted last summer directly on top of existing crosswalks in the borough’s great little downtown business district. We don’t know who the individual painters are [artists: please get in touch so we can credit you!] but various reports have the murals loosely associated with the group that puts on the annual Millvale Music Festival. That free weekend turn-every-business-into-a-music-venue hootenanny, along with everything else, just couldn’t happen last year.

street crosswalk mural of large fish in water

Something fishy (Grant & Sherman)

street crosswalk mural of books on a shelf

BIG free library (Grant & Sheridan)

While the show wasn’t able to go on, Millvale’s civic spirit continued unabated. The murals are 100% focused on the community, with almost all of them containing unnamed but sly references to the small businesses that exist in the immediate proximity.

There are a pair of collections of disembodied haircuts near Shear Timing and Salon 22; a lineup of dancing tacos, hot peppers, and salsas by Baby Loves Tacos’ North Ave. location; a firehose dowsing a raging flame in front of the fire department. A row of books is just down from the public library; stacks of Pamela’s glorious crepe-like pancakes at the P&G Diner; happy kids and chocolate bunnies by Yetter’s Candy Shop.

As waistline-watching, model-building, music fiends, we’re wondering how Jean-Marc’s French bakery, Esther’s Hobby Shop, and The Attic Record Store slipped through cracks here, but perhaps those are all in the works for this coming summer.

details from different murals painted in crosswalks, all of haircuts or scissors

Curl up and dye (details) (Grant & Sedgwick; North & Lincoln)

street crosswalk mural of fire and water hose

Firehouse (Lincoln & Sedgwick)

At present, Millvale’s downtown community is at a real high point of healthy livability. Its storefronts are occupied with businesses from the mundane to the sublime: there are a couple fancy things, a lot of nice-to-haves, and plenty of nuts-and-bolts. Those of us looking at (and regularly walking across the bridge to) Millvale from across the river in Lawrenceville can tell you all about the slippery slope from this zenith of sensible sustainability to drowning in condos, Thai rolled ice cream, and weekend partiers arriving by the Uber-load.

The crosswalk murals that celebrate Millvale’s community point all this out beautifully, without ever needing to rub your face in it. This little borough with its candy shops and laundromat, diners, dive bars, and videotape rental, church-turned-concert hall and ex-Moose Lodge to trattoria Sprezzatura, has so much to offer right now–even in the depths of Covid-induced ghost towns everywhere–that we should appreciate what we’ve got and how we can keep it just like it is.

street crosswalk mural reading "Millvale"

Gateway to Millvale (North Ave.)

details from murals painted in street crosswalks

Happy kids! Beer-making icons! (Grant & Sedgwick; Grant & Sherman)

Taco town! (Grant & North)

street crosswalk mural of stack of pancakes

That is a LARGE stack (detail) (North & Lincoln)

Tiny bubbles (Grant & North)

Garden scene (detail) (Grant & Butler)

Walk This Way: Jeremy Raymer’s One-Man Arts District

March 29, 2020March 29, 2020Leave a comment

mural of Andy Warhol and peeled pink banana by artist Jeremy Raymer

Peel slowly. Warhol/electric banana mural by Jeremy Raymer, Mulberry Way, Lawrenceville

We can still go for a walk.

These are–take your pick—strange, scary, stressful, uncertain, even apocalyptic times. But we all know a daily dose of leg-stretching and fresh-air-breathing is crucial to both our physical and mental health during even the best of days. Make no exception now; you need those things more than ever.

The daily constitutional also happens to be one of the few things we can still do–outside of the home–that is just as freely available now as it was a month ago, before the plague set in.

mural of cartoon horse wearing suit by artist Jeremy Raymer

Log! Mulberry Way

Don’t look for any streets signs marking Raymer Way; you won’t find it on any maps. That’s just our name for it. But there exists a three-block stretch of lower Lawrenceville that fully deserves one of those ceremonial placards, like the zoo’s One Wild Place or Amazing Kids Way in Squirrel Hill.

It’s there, on two long stretches of Mulberry Way, an alley running parallel with Butler Street, plus another short block of 35th Street, where rock-and-roll mural artist Jeremy Raymer has created a one-man, open air arts district. It’s yours for the perusing any time there’s enough daylight to read the (often very dark) wall surfaces–and you won’t encounter enough other people to worry about social distancing.

identical brick row houses, one with elaborate mural across the entire front, Pittsburgh, PA

The house that started it all. Chez Ray, 35th Street

Jeremy Raymer, over email, describes the evolving process:

The entire thing started from the previous owner of the warehouse at 35th and Charlotte seeing me painting my house [across the street] and asking if I wanted to paint on his warehouse. I said yes and started covering the [35th Street] side with the heart, eyes, and Hedy Lamarr murals first, then wanting more space and moving into the [Mulberry Way] alley.

Once this was covered I did want more space, so a few months back, I approached the owner of Morcilla and asked about doing a small piece on the alley entry to the restaurant, so I did that and then I wanted to see about more space, so I approached the Perlora warehouse and after a little bit of convincing (from me and some of their employees who are fans), they agreed to give me free reign on the alley portion of their warehouse. The initial intent was just a practice space for me and its just organically grown into what it is now.

mural of man's face on service entry to restaurant

David (?), Morcilla back entrance, Mulberry Way

If you’ve spent any time in Lawrenceville, the Strip District, or central North Side, you know Raymer’s work. Think of the giant image of (super hero) Magneto along AAA Scrap Metal’s Penn Avenue building and fence, the full wall Roberto Clemente on Verdetto’s Bar in Spring Garden, or the big Deutschtown Sasquatch. There are also a ton of smaller pieces–of sports figures, wild animals, and art references–that turn up on commercial storefronts, restaurant interiors, and pocket parks around the city.

If those are the final, big marquee commissioned pieces, Raymer Way is the sketch pad, the studies and scribbles. “I am basically allowed to do whatever I please,” Raymer says of his agreement with the Lawrenceville property owners, “I am given permission, but no sponsorship and it has all been on my accord and at my own cost.”

Mural of human heart on cinderblock wall by Jeremy Raymer, Pittsburgh, PA

Purple heart, 35th Street

Raymer’s murals fall clearly in the world of pop art. They’re big, over-saturated with electric color, using spray paint–the medium of choice for street art–that often has a certain airbrushed quality, and focus on subject matter around celebrity, movie characters, cartoons, and visual puns. He also has a particular affinity for the color purple.

At their best, Raymer has an incredibly deft hand and soft touch with a can of Krylon. He’s got a great color sense for what’s going to pop from a cinderblock wall or read through the roll-up mechanism of a retail security door. His portraits of real people are arresting, vivid, and fill the walls with an obvious holistic vision that treats the space as a broad canvas to be considered in toto. Raymer’s goofier stuff shows that he’s got a sense of humor and doesn’t take any of this too seriously–something altogether missing from so many artists.

Jeremy Raymer mural on cement block wall, Pittsburgh, PA

Purple Hedy Lamarr, 35th Street

mural of large mouth in purple by artist Jeremy Raymer

Big purple mouth, 35th Street

mural of man's face by artist Jeremy Raymer

Purpleish man, Mulberry Way

mural of purple witch painted by artist Jeremy Raymer

Purple witch, Mulberry Way

mural of purple bunny by artist Jeremy Raymer

Big purple bunny, Mulberry Way

mural of block of blue cheese painted by artist Jeremy Raymer

Blue cheese blues, Mulberry Way

Now, I’ll be the first to say I don’t love all of Raymer’s murals. Do we really need wall-sized portraits of the green Ghostbusters slime monster, Simpsons characters, or–sorry, Star Wars fans–Yoda? A matched pair of Buffalo chicken wings with a halo is kind of funny … kind of.

But let me say this: I have tremendous respect for anyone who goes out there and does their thing and gets this much stuff done, over and over again. To spend one’s free time–not to mention money–on materials, in negotiating with landlords, and decorating the alley backsides of anonymous buildings, is a tremendous gift to Lawrenceville and the city at large.

… and that gift is yours, whenever you’re ready to take that walk.

mural of Yoda painted by artist Jeremy Raymer

Hrmmm, on walls he paints. Yoda, Mulberry Way

mural of green monster by artist Jeremy Raymer

Bustin’ makes me feel good! Mulberry Way

mural of chicken wings with an angel's halo painted by artist Jeremy Raymer

Chicken wings/halo, Mulberry Way

mural by Jeremy Raymer including a heart with keyhole and key

The key to your heart, Mulberry Way

mural of multicolor skull by artist Jeremy Raymer

Skull, Mulberry Way

Getting there: The Raymer Way murals are on Mulberry Way, lower Lawrenceville, between 34th and 36th Streets, as well as 35th Street, between Mulberry Way and Charlotte Street. There are plenty of other Raymer murals in near walking distance throughout Lawrenceville and The Strip District. There’s even a map of locations on his web site.

Follow Jeremy Raymer on Instagram at @jeremyMraymer or @raymerarttours. For contact information and a map of his Pittsburgh murals, see jmraymer.com.

Related: see also “An Orbit Obit: Where the Buffalo Roamed,” Pittsburgh Orbit, Dec. 12, 2015.

A High Five for the Skyline

January 5, 20204 Comments

mural by Baron Batch depicting cartoonish, colorful version of downtown Pittsburgh skyline

Real skyline above, fantasy skyline below. Dirty Franky’s Laundromat, Beltzhoover. [mural by Baron Batch]

You’d think the city would eventually run out of artist depictions and graphically deconstructed interpretations of the downtown Pittsburgh skyline. But … you’d be wrong.

No, four years on and five posts into the series, it feels like we’re just getting started cataloging every time we see clustered renderings of PPG Place, US Steel tower, the Highmark needle, bridges on either side, etc. That first story, from January, 2016, had a mere five examples in it. Looking back, our editors hang their heads low at this naively pathetic early offering–nowadays, we can bag that many skylines in a good weekend!

P*Town Bar sign including the Pittsburgh skyline

Silhouette city. P*Town Bar, North Oakland.

We must have walked/driven past the provocatively-named P*Town Bar on Baum Blvd. a zillion times, but have you ever really looked at the backlit, multicolor sign out front? It’s a perfect silhouette of downtown Pittsburgh’s tallest buildings forming an artful lineup against a pure white background. While it’s questionable that you’d get a vantage point to see these tall buildings in this exact arrangement, P*Town clearly gets an A+ for showing off city skyscrapers in all their glory.

It’s not alone. From Tow-tegrity’s giant hauling hook about to decapitate PPG Tower to the ambitious cyclist scaling the roof of Gateway Center for Bike the Burgh Tours, this batch of Pittsburgh city-scapes is almost entirely commercial in nature. Hey–it still took a (graphic) artist to put them together.

Hooked on the skyline. Tow-Tegrity, Inc. “Towing with Integrity,” New Brighton.

If you’re going to include skyline imagery and call your business or organization Pittsburgh this or Steel City that or River City the other, you might as well go all-in with a patriotic color scheme.

This time around, there are plenty of signs rendered in Pittsburgh no-brainer black-and-gold.

Skylines N’At. Pittsburgh Sheds N’At, Gibsonia

Pixelated Picksburgh^[1]. Steel City Cutting & Coring.

Skyline reduced to three buildings. River City Church, Swissvale.

412 Properties, Lawrenceville

sign for Bike the Burgh Tours with a bicycle rider on a silhouette of the Pittsburgh skyline

If you thought the complaining about bicycle lanes was bad now, check out this new plan. Bike the Burgh Tours, downtown.

waste bin plaque including the Pittsburgh skyline

A most livable skyline. City waste bin plaque.

Pittsburgh skyline on side of Ford truck with the message "the Official Truck of the Pittsburgh Penguins"

Pucks over Pittsburgh! Ford, the Official Truck of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Skyline looking south. Northside Community Development Fund, Deutschtown.

Of course, not every establishment felt the need to go with the de rigueur color scheme. Pittsburgh skyline logos also come in green and white; red, white, and blue; teal and violet; and green and blue.

No judgement here. These businesses are staking their claim as hometown products of Pittsburgh and should be rewarded for their effort. Hats–and in the case of The Cricket, lots of other garments–off to all of these places. This fifth time around, they all get a high five for the skyline.

painted sign for Cricket Lounge including skyline of downtown Pittsburgh

Even naked ladies like the Pittsburgh skyline. Cricket Lounge, North Oakland.

sign for Pittsburgh Community Services including the Pittsburgh skyline

Sci-Fi Sky. Skyline meets triangle + boomerang modern astral ring. Pittsburgh Community Services, Inc., Oakland.

Skyline as helping hand. Pittsburgh Cares, Lawrenceville.

Skyline as bar chart. Greater Pittsburgh Real Estate Services.

painting of downtown Pittsburgh at night

Skyline as public art. Irwin.

sticker on urinal with image of downtown Pittsburgh skyline

Hygiene City. Enviro-Master Total Hygiene Systems^[2]. [photo: Lee Floyd]

neon sign for Welcome Pittsburgh including part of the downtown skyline

Neon skyline. Welcome Pittsburgh, downtown.

[1] While Steel City Cutting & Coring wears their hometown bona fides right in the company name and color scheme, this heavily-abstracted graphic may be a true Pittsburgh skyline, but it could also just be some generic city-like thing. We have to include it, though.
[2] Enviro-Master is a national company, based in Charlotte, NC. It’s unclear whether the small logo, featuring three buildings and an angled gesture, are part of the corporate identity or local branding. [I couldn’t locate the same image–or any company logo–on their web site.] Regardless, it looks enough like a nod to downtown Pittsburgh and the Point that we’re counting it.

A Fourth Time for the Skyline

April 28, 2019April 28, 20192 Comments

mural, A Silver Fox Limousine Service, Neville Island

Let’s start with the obvious: there are a lot of representations of the Pittsburgh skyline out there. They show up anywhere and everywhere when you start looking–in street art and sponsored neighborhood murals, small business advertising and, of course, official city-branded vehicles and equipment. There are so many that this–The Orbit‘s fourth foray into collecting them–bags the biggest haul yet. Heck, we didn’t even bother with the newish emblems on city trash cans.

When looking at these, it’s best not to get too critical of the exact layout of downtown buildings or specific geographic features. So what if the A Silver Fox Limousine Service mural sneaks in the Empire State Building just to the left of PPG tower? That painting is undeniably downtown Pittsburgh. The same with Thai Gourmet Express’ vague set of spiky buildings behind a suspension that is very clearly not The West End Bridge–the east-facing river perspective and tight arrangement of tall buildings on a relatively small piece of land is good enough for us.

We’ll keep the blah-blah-blah short this week and get you right to the photos. Happy skylining!

mural including the Pittsburgh skyline along bicycle trail

mural, Jail Trail

handmade puppet stage decorated with Pittsburgh skyline

puppet stage, Pittsburgh Puppet Guild

news box with artwork of Pittsburgh skyline and pigeon

artist-created Pittsburgh City Paper news box, Squirrel Hill

mural of downtown Pittsburgh skyline by artist Baron Batch

Baron Batch mural, South Side Slopes

mural for Guys and Dolls hair salon featuring Pittsburgh skyline, Bellevue, PA

mural, Guys and Dolls hair salon, Bellevue

mural, Spak Brothers Pizza, Garfield

colorful mural featuring the Pittsburgh skyline

mural, Millie’s Ice Cream, Shadyside

mural, Iron Lung vape shop, Bloomfield

Thai Gourmet Express food truck, Oakland

The Three Ps. Specials board, Patron Mexican Grill, East Liberty

logo, The Construction Company

Healthy Ride bicycle share kiosk

bus shelter advertisement

chalk board, Delanie’s Coffee, Southside

Steeltown Marketing, Bloomfield

line drawing of Pittsburgh skyline on police van

City of Pittsburgh police van

Incisor Edition: Dental Art

August 5, 2018August 8, 20183 Comments

mural on brick wall of large tooth with crossed toothbrushes and the sign "Dentistry", Pittsburgh, PA

tooth & cross-brushes: Jeffries, Smith & Associates, North Oakland

Holy molars! Big teeth. Monster teeth. Heck–we’re in Pittsburgh–dinosaur-sized teeth dangle from storefront awnings, appear painted in exaggerated scale on wall advertisements, and light up the night in window-sized neon displays. The teeth often come to life in bizarre anthropomorphized versions of the real thing, complete with goofy smiles [a tooth with teeth!] and little arms bizarrely clutching their own teeth-cleaning tools.

Dental Art is genre you’ll likely not find represented at this year’s upcoming Carnegie International–and that’s a shame. Don’t let its everywhere and everyone populism lull you into thinking a happy, glowing, purple neon molar is anything less than the noblest of public-private art partnerships. Anyone may go in for the crown, but whether you make a bee line for the canines or you’re just bicuspid-curious, we’re all royalty in a realm this rich with tooth display.

neon sign of large tooth with smiley face advertising dentist, Ambridge, PA

Walko Family Denistry, Ambridge

Northside Dental

Why is dentistry unique among medical fields in advertising via super-sized versions of the body part being treated? We don’t find an equivalent mass of enormous feet outside podiatrists’ offices or giant schnozes at the ear, nose, and throat specialist. Sure, you’ll see some see a pair of big eyeglasses here or there, but optometrists don’t tend to lay out for sculpted, disembodied eyeballs. What gives?

Why, if every neighborhood gastroenterologist and gynecologist had massive public art-sized scale models of the digestive and reproductive systems in front of their buildings, we’d all learn something with a stroll down the sidewalk or drive-by trip to the grocery store. Cardiologists could light up terrific neon hearts, the stop/start blinking lights crudely simulating blood pumping through ventricles. Why is this kind of action only acceptable for dentists? To all the doctors in the Orbit’s readership: how can we make this happen?

large plastic tooth painted gold hanging in front of dentist's office, Pittsburgh, PA

gold tooth with big cavity: Affordable Dentistry, Shadyside

large 3-D sign with large mouth and toothbrush for Select Dental, Millvale, PA

pop-art dentist: Select Dental, Millvale

We can probably answer our own question here. Kids start out terrified of the dentist, and it only goes downhill from there. You think braces are bad? Try getting a double root canal!

As intimidating as a visit to the doctor’s office or hospital clinic can be, there is something about the dentist’s chair that inspires a level a dread like no other (routine) medical procedure. The forced-open mouth, novocaine injected straight into the gums, instruments of torture clinically laid out to aggressively scratch the enamel from our defenseless chompers. And then there’s Hobson’s choice, incisor edition: wintergreen or tutti-fruitti?

Oh, and how about that squeal when the drill is engaged–changing from ear-piercing ultra-high pitch to an oppressive grind as we helplessly watch smoldering tooth shrapnel spray on the protective lenses of all present. The whole experience gives this sometimes sweet tooth the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.

anthropomorphized smiling tooth with toothbrush and toothpaste from a sign for McKees Rocks Dental, McKees Rocks, PA

this tooth could use a cleaning: McKees Rocks Dental

dental office sign with anthropomorphized tooth holding giant toothbrush, Clairton, PA

David S. Shoaf, DDS, Clairton

So it makes sense in a profession that invokes sheer terror in the minds of a significant portion of its clientele that the conscientious dental professional would do everything in her or his power to lighten the mood. These are not cruel people; we just perceive them that way. Bring on the bright colors, the big smiles, the pop art oversized toothbrush, lips, and pearly whites.

My Oakland-based dentist [no tooth sign, but she gets a pass because the office is in a big building] has some kind of custom, ad-free music channel clearly designed to be as inoffensive and restful as possible. While a doped-up hour with James Taylor, Enya, and John Mayer could be considered its own version of Hell, no one will actually be driven to rage.

What lies ahead may not be fun, these accommodations all seem to say, but we’ll do our best to make it all right. Much respect to all the dentists and all their big teeth.