← Ologies with Alie Ward
Ologies with Alie Ward
Field Trip: I Take You to the Making of a Mural
00:33:57
Folks, come with me. We’re hanging out under some train tracks late at night in Philadelphia doing street art. As the promised companion piece to our wonderful Modern Toichographology episode on murals and street art, this Field Trip takes us to where the action happens, chatting with several muralists as they work on their 17-foot paintings lining Front Street. You’ll meet UNAPXLXGETIQ, El Toro, and Iris Barbee Pendergrass a.k.a. These Pink Lips, Donna Grace Kroh, and Mr. Scoot and learn about their favorite inspirations, methods to making their designs huge, how many Sharpies it takes to outline a building-sized painting, sticker vs. marker vs. paint, graphic and text mural designs, freehand, and most of all, how not to get caught doing illegal art. Onward.
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- [00:01]
Alie Ward
Experiences make life more meaningful, and with mastercardspriceless.com, you can immerse yourself in unforgettable experiences in dining, sports, art, entertainment and more in over 40 destinations. From a round of golf with a legendary player to a cooking class with a celebrity chef, you can fuel your passions and create lasting memories. Explore experiences today@priceless.com exclusively for MasterCard cardholders. Terms and conditions apply. Hey Fidelity, what's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app?
- [00:36]
Fidelity Representative
Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on US stocks and ETFs.
- [00:43]
Alie Ward
That's music to my ears. I can only talk.
- [00:48]
Conrad Benner
Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Zero Account fees apply to retail brokerage accounts only. Sell order assessment fee not included. A limited number of ETFs are subject to a transaction based service fee of $100. See full list at fidelity.com commissions Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC Member NYSE SIPC oh hey, it's the acorn at the bottom of your purse. Alie Ward and I love a field trip. I love them checking things out. You're walking around, you're talking to strangers, seeing the world. Now this episode is the much promised, long awaited partner to our recent Modern Toyco Graphology episode all about murals with wonderful Conrad Benner of the Mural Arts Department of Philly. So I take you with me kiddos, and today we're going to a street in the Fishtown neighborhood in Philadelphia underneath some train tracks and next to a large expansive wall with perfectly primered surfaces ready to become six murals. Again. This is the Front Street Mural Project. It was orchestrated by Philly's Mural Arts program. We talked about it in the Modern Tokographology episode about murals and street art. That one's linked in the show notes but over 300 local artists pitched their designs and only six were chosen. So will reunite with Conrad Benner and artists who go by Unapologetic, El Toro and these pink lips. One muralist, Emily White, was in Greece muraling over there, but we chatted with a few other nearby street artists who were on hand to help. But before we hit the streets, thank you to patrons of the show for supporting Ologies since before even our first episode. You make the show possible and you can join@patreon.com Ologies thank you to everyone out there in ologies merch@ologiesmerch.com for no dollars though, you can leave us a review and I read them all. So thank you to Stingra bands who wrote Listening to The tardigradeology episode. As I write this and said, imagine you're a tardigrade sitting on a moss cushion, bro. I am there. Stingray Bands writes. Thank you, Stingray Bands. We're together in moss. Okay. And now let's take you back to the mural capital of the world and the birthplace of graffiti Philadelphia to learn how to make your design huge and then paint it. How many sharpies it takes to outline a building sized mural, sticker versus marker versus paint, graphic and text mural designs freehand. And most of all, let's hang out on a street corner with people cooler than us and learn how they live their lives as professional artists. So onward. Hop in. Field trip. The making up a mural. Come on. So up first, we talked to a veteran mural arts muralist who's on the scene to assist these artists. Some are doing their very first mural projects. Grace.
- [03:46]
Fidelity Representative
Grace, tell me your first and last name.
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Donna Grace Crow
Donna Grace Crow.
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Conrad Benner
K, R, O, H. But you go by Grace?
- [03:53]
Donna Grace Crow
Yes.
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Fidelity Representative
How long have you been an artist?
- [03:56]
Donna Grace Crow
Honestly, my whole life. Like, I've really been interested in art, like as a child, really drawn to it. And then I remember winning my first monetary award in sixth grade and I was like, okay, this might be something.
- [04:10]
Fidelity Representative
Yeah, to be a paid artist in sixth grade.
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Donna Grace Crow
Exactly.
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Fidelity Representative
It's like a lifelong goal.
- [04:15]
Donna Grace Crow
Yes. But I've been doing murals specifically for just two years now.
- [04:19]
Fidelity Representative
What made you make the jump outside? Was it Covid? Were you like, art shows in galleries weren't happening, so you moved it outside?
- [04:25]
Donna Grace Crow
Well, I was actually focused. I studied psychology, so I was kind of focused in trying to get a career within psychology and more in, like, the corporate world. But yeah, because of COVID I was working within the school system and, you know, we had to go online and that really wasn't for me. There was a volunteer day within Mural Arts and I actually just jumped right into it and they hired me on the spot and I quit my job that day.
- [04:50]
Conrad Benner
Sayonara, baby.
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Donna Grace Crow
And I've been loving it ever since. It doesn't even feel like a job. Like, yeah, I'm just purely in love with what I do.
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Fidelity Representative
I didn't know this until Sarah McAnolsky told me that Philadelphia is such a mural city. And now I know. Do you have a couple murals that really inspired you?
- [05:11]
Donna Grace Crow
Honestly, there's one mural that's in center city by Amy Sherrell, which has a pretty bright blue background and has a figure of, I believe, one of her students painted in black and white. And she has yellow hat. And I loved it because I'm a portrait artist and I loved how simple it was, but it was in large scale and made you stop.
- [05:31]
Conrad Benner
And Amy Sherrill, side note, is an American painter who you may remember from First Lady Michelle Obama's official portrait and untitled. Her mural in Philly is this huge, maybe 50 foot mural in downtown of a girl wearing a graphic floral black and white coat. And she's wearing a bright golden yellow hat. And the buttons on her coat match the yellow hat. And Sherrild, who's a woman of color, is known for the way she paints skin tones in grayscale, she says, to challenge notions about race. And I read that as her art career took off, she waited tables until the age of 38 to support herself. And now her paintings sell in the millions. So if you're in Philadelphia, cruise by her Untitled with this bright turquoise background, because you are looking at a renowned, expensive piece of art from the parking lot of a Target.
- [06:26]
Donna Grace Crow
And I just love that part about it. And there's a new mural too, called the Flight mural, which is kind of close to it on, I believe, 13th in Philadelphia. And it is with a woman who's jumping in the air. It's actually the artist who used herself as reference. And there's a quote below it, but it's huge. I believe it's like three stories tall.
- [06:47]
Conrad Benner
Oh, my God.
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Donna Grace Crow
And it's another portrait and it's just, you know, very surreal, larger than life.
- [06:52]
Conrad Benner
So this mural, Flight, nearly takes up the height of a tall brick building in Philadelphia. And it depicts the artist Tatiana Fallelizadei with arms outstretched and her toes pointed as if she's frozen, like in the middle of a dance jump. And she's got this yellow skirt that flows behind her. She's wearing a plum colored shirt that kind of rides up with the jump. And her hair in locks, flower flows behind her. Her face is sort of cocked up and her eyebrows are raised. And the Flight mural is, in her words, part of a series of life sized and large scale murals that feature realistic paintings of black people floating in the air. And she continues, it was told that enslaved Africans could take flight, liberating themselves by flying back to their homeland of Africa. And though the folklore of black people being able to take flight extends before the period of American slavery and far beyond it in this series, we see black people suspended in the floating above societal violences. And this mural Flight is also multiple stories tall. Now, these murals that we're at on Front street aren't quite that big, but it's still no Easy task.
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Fidelity Representative
Now, when it comes to making your drawings like that giant that seems so daunting for non mural artists, how do you approach that, getting it from a drawing in a page to like a building size?
- [08:14]
Donna Grace Crow
Oh, man. Well, it really depends what your wall texture is like and how big it is. But what we do usually with mural arts in Philadelphia is with parachute cloth, where we kind of ghost print it. So we do a transparent print on the cloth and we paint over it so that we can, you know, really get the anatomy or, you know, things very precisely. Another way is a doodle grid, which is very easy to do. Doing a random doodle as your grid, drawing whatever you want, and then taking a picture of it and then double layering your photo on top of it. And honestly, you can get really precise with that as well.
- [08:52]
Conrad Benner
So you can use a grid to upsize your work, so you follow square by square. But you could also do random squiggles or lines or dots or zigzags all over the wall itself. This doesn't seem to make sense, but a lot of artists do it and it works. So you do all these dots and squiggles all over the wall. You take a straigh on photo of the wall and then you superimpose that photo over your digital mockup of your mural design. And then you use the random squiggles on the wall as markers for where your design should land. Like, you know, the hairline should start at this dot and the lips should only go up to this part of the squiggle. Or if this doodle, squiggle or square grid is not for you, you can paste your work up.
- [09:36]
Donna Grace Crow
Honestly, parachute cloth is where it's at since you can be in studio and you just need to glue it up and worry about touch.
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Fidelity Representative
So you glued the parachute cloth onto the wall then?
- [09:46]
Donna Grace Crow
Yes.
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Fidelity Representative
Oh, what about advice for someone who has always dreamt of being a mural artist, but they don't know how to get into it?
- [09:54]
Donna Grace Crow
I mean, you always gotta start somewhere. So, you know, just keep reaching out to local restaurants or companies that possibly might need a mural and then just do your research, Just ask questions and reach out to other local artists, you know, see if you want to assist, or you can just ask specific questions to get yourself started, but definitely just go for it.
- [10:16]
Fidelity Representative
Thank you for talking to me, Grace.
- [10:17]
Donna Grace Crow
Oh my God, thank you so much. This has been a dream.
- [10:20]
Conrad Benner
So we walked about 20ft over to meet the next artist as the team fiddled with a projector which was being blown out by the streetlight. Overhead. And the artist, Iris Barbee Pendergrass, who also owns the clothing brand these Pink Lips, was working on this colorful portrait of a woman with full lips, flowers for eyes, and a shaved head. And that stood out from the background of these black and white hand scrawled texts. And the text read in part, buy yourself flowers, take up space, bloom, grow. So let's meet Iris.
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Iris Barbee Pendergrass
So these are two of the lead artists that we're working with too.
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Donna Grace Crow
Yeah.
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Iris
Iris.
- [10:55]
Conrad Benner
Hi, Iris.
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Fidelity Representative
I'm Allie. Nice to meet you. Do you just go by Iris or do you have, like a last name?
- [10:59]
Iris
My brand is called these Pink Lips, but it's Iris Barbie, Pendergrass and Iris Work.
- [11:05]
Conrad Benner
And the these Pink Lips brand is really recognizable. It's got a stark color palette, usually black and white painted scrawls of text, then with pops of color and designs. So some of the text on her apparel reads, fuck you, pay me, vote, or she's the boss. And this mural will also be black and white text based in her style, but with a colorful portrait overlaid Iris.
- [11:28]
Fidelity Representative
Do you have a strategy for getting it from your design to.
- [11:32]
Iris
So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna, like, trace, like, the out of her face just so I can get the scaling right, and then I'm just gonna freestyle everything else. So I normally, like, freestyle, but I never worked this big before. Probably like 12ft, the biggest. But yeah, I just wanna trace her face so I can get the proportions right and her lips and just freestyle.
- [11:53]
Fidelity Representative
What about the type of paint I.
- [11:55]
Iris
Use, like acrylic, Using a lot of spray paint. That's what I use for the background and the font and everything like that. Or probably do it by hand.
- [12:04]
Fidelity Representative
And then I understand you need a good clear coat for weather, right? Yeah, I didn't know that. I didn't know about that until today.
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Iris
I know because this is going to be here for a minute. So.
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Fidelity Representative
And you do fashion as well?
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Iris
Yeah, I paint, like, on a lot of clothes. So I paint on clothes. I paint on furniture. I started off painting on canvas, and then I went to shoes, then I went to clothes.
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Fidelity Representative
Have you always painted or did you pick it up in your teens?
- [12:26]
Iris
I started drawing, like, since forever. Like, I was a kid. And then I went to college. I wanted to do graphic design. I was like, okay, I could do graphic design because it's a little bit of everything you can do. I hated painting when I was in school because I sucked at it. Like, we were doing, like, oil paints and, like, draw fruit or people. And I'm Like, I'm not good at this type of stuff. And I was just like, you know, oil paints take a long time to dry, so I was just, like, turned off.
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Iris Barbee Pendergrass
That's the boring part.
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Iris
But when I graduated, I was just like, all right, I can kind of do what I want to do, so I can turn my drawings into paintings. And then that's what I started doing.
- [12:59]
Conrad Benner
And again, we stood under the train tracks late at night, craning our necks up to take in these works in progress.
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Fidelity Representative
How long do you have to make your mural?
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Iris
I think we have, like, a couple weeks.
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Fidelity Representative
Okay.
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Iris
Probably two weeks. But I feel like I can knock it out in, like, five to six days maybe. Like, once I'm getting. I'm in a zone, then I'm in a zone. And this is new for me because I never used a projector or anything. I've never done anything this super big.
- [13:24]
Fidelity Representative
Did you do a few drafts of things that you wanted to do and decide on which of them you wanted to make your own?
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Iris
I did two. Originally, I did two different sketches. And the way I work, I never sketch. I don't like sketching. I just like to just do it on the canvas. But you have to sketch for something this big. So I did two different sketches. Soul Kind, Red. I was like, I don't know which one I really like. And we both, like, really like the one that I just showed you. So I sent them that, and they gave me a little bit of feedback, and I changed, like, some things, and then that was it.
- [13:55]
Fidelity Representative
It sounds like people are very excited you're doing one. Thank you for letting me in. Of course.
- [13:58]
Iris
Thank you.
- [13:59]
Conrad Benner
Thank you. Next, we met up with a Philly based graphic designer, an artist, an educator, a curator, and the founder of UNA Design and muralist Emmanuel Wisdom, who had been on a scaffolding working on what.
- [14:13]
Fidelity Representative
Looked like lettering and now. Emmanuel, right?
- [14:16]
Emmanuel Wisdom
Yeah. My artist's name is Unapologetics, spelled U N, A P X L, X G, E, T, I, Q.
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Conrad Benner
Awesome.
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Emmanuel Wisdom
Yep.
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Fidelity Representative
How long have you been an artist? What medium do you typically work in?
- [14:28]
Emmanuel Wisdom
I'm a graphic artist. Mostly digital things, but I'm doing mostly murals now, so most of my digital work is transferring onto wall or clothing or canvases.
- [14:39]
Fidelity Representative
When you were coming up with the design for this particular. This is Front street, right?
- [14:44]
Emmanuel Wisdom
Yeah, Front Street.
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Conrad Benner
And he showed me a mock up sketch of the word hope in all caps in various colors, and really reminiscent of the iconic love sculpture. This was made by Robert Indiana, and it's the word love. It's four letters. The L and the O and then the V and the E underneath it. And it has an off kilter O. If you saw the Love design by Robert Indiana, you would know it immediately. You would recognize it from so many shirts and even stamps and Unapologetics is a nod to that.
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Emmanuel Wisdom
It's called Hope.
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Fidelity Representative
Oh, that's beautiful.
- [15:15]
Emmanuel Wisdom
It's basically almost playing off of the Philly Love, but it's more like Philly Hope and the Liberty Bell. Hope for Liberty. But mostly I'm a typography and hand lettering artist.
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Fidelity Representative
Oh, wow.
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Emmanuel Wisdom
My work is heavily type based and so when I was doing it, it's mostly using the letters almost in an architectural way to give the meaning and then utilizing the colors. And I went with like elementary colors because it's almost like a resetting of the brain and it provided kind of a different perspective because it's such a.
- [15:48]
Fidelity Representative
Public space and the wall textures might change and the weather might change. It was like raining yesterday and tonight you might have a blaringly bright street light in front of your projector. Do you find that you're constantly like problem solution, problem solution. When you're working outside, it's life, you.
- [16:03]
Emmanuel Wisdom
Know, you gotta work with the environment and the people, the noise. You gotta work with anything that comes up. You know, it's part of the art. It inspires the art, I feel like. But as far as the conditions, it does help if the conditions are a lot nicer, especially for the paint to dry or for the paint to be more fluid when you're painting. But as far as the external, once I get in the zone, it just kind of naturally blocks out things.
- [16:29]
Fidelity Representative
Yeah. Do you have a favorite mural either in the city or in the world?
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Emmanuel Wisdom
2021. I put up a mural with a buddy of mine, Eric Buzzard, and it was an MLK mural and it was a picture of MLK in a purple floral background. And the text on it said, I've decided to stick with love. And I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. It's a great burden to bear. That was one of my favorite murals because it kind of embodies the energy of mlk. It was more of a social mural and people received it well. So for me, that kind of always sticks with me. I almost like looking at murals as like exterior decoration. But as far as the artists, you have the creative liberty to kind of almost warp the space and take the viewer into like a. A different time period. So that was one of my favorite murals because of the impact of it.
- [17:28]
Conrad Benner
And this Scranton, New York mural called the Dream features bright kelly green leaves with pops of deep purple trumpet shaped morning glory flowers. With Emanuel's graphic, absolutely perfect lettering with font choices that are just dazzling. And of course, the one he's working on is in a similar vein with these bright colors and the word hope and details like a Liberty Bell. Using language as an art form, it's both energized and it's also impeccable all at once.
- [17:58]
Fidelity Representative
It's really, really cool to see a mural installation like this. To see it and to know in a matter of like weeks or months that it's going to be look completely different, you know? Yeah, that's really cool.
- [18:09]
Emmanuel Wisdom
Yeah, that's. The power of art is the ability to be able to transform and kind of take people on a journey, whether it's through color or symbol or even if you're fortunate enough to watch other artists put up the work. It's almost like a mesmerizing and therapeutic process. Shout out to Conrad for putting the project together.
- [18:30]
Conrad Benner
And again, for more on Conrad and his work as a documenter of Philly street art, you can see his blog and his Instagram streets department, as well as all of his curation involvement for the Mural Arts Foundation. And our recent modern Toiko graphology episode is all about murals and about the process and the impact of public art. And it's lovely. He is lovely. Public art is lovely and as it turns out, essential.
- [18:53]
Emmanuel Wisdom
It's a great way as far as being an artist to create a piece of work that's not necessarily permanent. So it kind of gives you a bit more of a freedom to create without attachment. So which is a beautiful thing. It's almost like, I think some like Buddhist monks, they do these kind of mandala with like sand or salt and it's very beautifully done and at the end of it, it kind of wash it away. It's kind of a process, you know, let you understand that you're not necessarily the end result. You're more of the vessel that's delivering the message. And then there's a time span for everything, including us as humans. So it's a beautiful process, but at the same time, sometimes you want to work to stay up a bit longer.
- [19:39]
Conrad Benner
That streetlight was still really ruining the vibe glaring from overhead.
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Fidelity Representative
I hope we figure out a fix for that light. Yes, I've come up with so many bad ideas.
- [19:50]
Emmanuel Wisdom
Like I was telling you earlier, you know, it's part of the art. It's not so much just putting paint on a wall, but it's thinking about the environment, the people, the proximity either to the street or to the wall. And it all kind of informs the creativity. So as an artist, I'm gonna challenge myself to, you know, just freestyle. But the approach I'm taking, I was talking about the mirror way of transferring. The approach I'm going to take is a great system.
- [20:17]
Conrad Benner
So rather than the projector using the grid system to transfer square by square to preserve the scale and perspective of.
- [20:24]
Emmanuel Wisdom
A big work, I'm gridding the art on a smaller scale and then put the grid on the wall. And then at that point, you just kind of working in squares. So it's not so much of a scale. It's just almost adding little pieces as you go along.
- [20:37]
Fidelity Representative
That's a good way to look at life. Just take things in smaller chunks and just keep going.
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Emmanuel Wisdom
Yeah, it's just like everything else. It makes it more fun because now as an artist, you are leaving with a different experience because almost like you hit a roadblock and you kind of thought around the roadblock and you executed a project.
- [20:55]
Fidelity Representative
Oh, that's great. Well, this is such a joy. Thank you for letting us come down here and crash your apartment.
- [21:01]
Conrad Benner
Okay, so next I moseyed over to a guy named Mr. Scooter or Michele Scott, but you can find him on insta @m. Scoot. And his work looks like if you took cartoon heads in the brightest colors imaginable and then you put them all in a purse and then you dumped the purse upside down like a waterfall of faces. And today he isn't putting up his own mural, but he's on hand to assist the other artists.
- [21:25]
Fidelity Representative
I didn't get your name either.
- [21:27]
Michele Scott
Michele.
- [21:28]
Fidelity Representative
Michele. I was just curious. I'm also asking people if they have any murals that people should see in Philadelphia. Oh, your thoughts in general?
- [21:37]
Michele Scott
Raccoon mural in Port Richmond is probably the best mural in Philadelphia.
- [21:41]
Fidelity Representative
What do you like about it?
- [21:43]
Michele Scott
I like raccoons.
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Conrad Benner
Okay. Honestly, same.
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Michele Scott
I don't know. I don't know. I feel like people in Philly get a bad rep like raccoons. And it's just a raccoon eating a pretzel in Port Richmond. So feels like a good symbol of the city, I think. I mean, one of my favorite murals was the welcome to Fishtown one with the cats. But now it's getting covered up by an apartment building, which happens to a lot of murals, which kind of sucks.
- [22:09]
Conrad Benner
But the welcome to Fishtown cover up is a tragedy. Because this mural spans the length of a building horizontally and it features in giant cheese puff orange colored block letters, welcome to Fishtown. With these three very languid orange tabby cats draped over a few of the letters. It is not subtle or subdued aesthetically, and it is a treasure.
- [22:33]
Fidelity Representative
Isn't it crazy to think though, that in like a hundred years or a thousand years if they do an excavation, that they might find those, like they find old frescoes?
- [22:42]
Michele Scott
I do think about that, you know. Yeah, that would be crazy. Yeah.
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Fidelity Representative
Like, if one day they're like in, you know, post apocalyptic, whatever, aliens land, and they're like, what's this fish Town mural?
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Michele Scott
You know, what's this raccoon holding a pretzel?
- [22:54]
Fidelity Representative
What does it mean?
- [22:55]
Michele Scott
This must be the food they eat all the time, at least in this region. Which is. Which is true. Every time I do like a freelance project and they always want me to do something like, oh, like we want it to be Philly themed. I'll do like Drumline Elmo or something like that. Or like something that's like a little bit more obscure, Philly wise, like the Mutter Museum or something like that. And they're like, can we get a pretzel in there? And the Liberty Bell. And I'm like, if you go to like St. Louis or Miami or San Diego, they know Philly because of the Liberty Bell. The Eagles maybe, but they don't know about Drumline Elmo. They don't know about Drumline Elmo. They don't know about the Mooter Museum.
- [23:34]
Conrad Benner
I had to look this up, but Drumline Elmo side note refers to this viral 2018 video titled Elmo at the Great Philadelphia trash fire of 2018. And in it you will see a person walking on the sidewalk in a very weathered, possibly off brand full body Elmo costume, shuffling along with just a two piece marching drum band. And then the camera whip pans to a large industrial fire raging in the background nearby, very nearby. And Drumline Elmo has become kind of an unofficial but beloved mascot of the city and shows up at sports events and protests. And the Mutter Museum is the very famous Philly institution that houses a lot of dead human body parts. So it's grim, it's science, it's Philadelphia. And we're gonna get to that in a second. But first we're gonna take a quick break. And of course we always choose a charity of choice. And this time we're gonna send it to the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia to keep supporting artists and keep supporting murals. We love what they do. So thank you to sponsors of the show for making that possible. Okay. You know, sometimes you eat something and you're like, ah, feel so much better. And other times you eat a meal and you're like, I want to go nap on the couch and I can't remember my own name or I need.
- [24:47]
Fidelity Representative
10 desserts right now.
- [24:49]
Conrad Benner
That could be your glucose talking. My glucose is very loud. My insulin floods in response to sugar and then it crashes and I feel like garbage. But introducing Lingo. This is a bio wearable. It's from Abbott and it tracks your glucose levels in real time. And then on an app it gives you insights into how high they went, how much they crashed, how well managed your glucose is throughout the day. So I tried Lingo. I have it on my arm right now and it's awesome for me, I know that my blood sugar greatly impacts my life and I can look at that and see the data. I love that Lingo has science backed recommendations to eat in a way that works better for you personally. So to see how your body responds to food and learn what you can do to improve your metabolism, try Lingo. It starts at $49 for a two week plan, no prescription needed. And for a limited time, you can save 10% on your first order with the code ologies@hello lingo.com the Lingo Glucose system is for users 18 years and older, not on insulin. It's not intended for diagnoses of diseases, including diabetes. For more information please visit helingo.com I pride myself on being the friend that people text links to and they go, is this real? And I go, no. And I'm proud of that skepticism. And it's also helpful when it comes to health hacks. I can spot a too good to be true pack from a mile away. So can you. Ritual knows that every good skeptic deserves a multivitamin that exceeds our standards. They have a clinically backed essential for women 18 + multivitamin. It has high quality traceable key ingredients. I love that Ritual multivitamins are vegan. They're gluten and major allergen free. Also, Ritual is a certified B Corp and a female founded B Corp. They hold themselves accountable to finances, but also the health of people and our planet. I have a checklist every morning of things that I do. One of them is sit down with a cup of tea and schedule out my day. Another is honestly taking supplements because I find that my energy and my mood is better when I do personally. And Ritual is the one that I take. They also have a nice minty flavor and the capsules look like lava lamps. I appreciate that as well. No more shady business rituals essential for women 18+ is a multivitamin you can actually trust and you can get 25% off your first month@ritual.com ologies. So start Ritual or add Essential for Women 18 to your subscription today. That's ritual.com ologies for 25% off.
- [27:11]
Alie Ward
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- [27:44]
El Toro
Do you ever watch TV and think, wow, I'm really good at this? You're right. With rewards on sling, watching 30 minutes of TV daily gives you chances to win up to $10,000 in cash and other monthly prizes. Sign up for Sling or Stream for free with Sling Freestream to get rewarded for watching TV. Sling lets you do that. Visit sling.com to learn more and get started. No purchase necessary for it were prohibited by law. Visit sling.com for more details. Nobody does selling better than Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. The Shop Pay feature even boosts conversions up to 50%.
- [28:20]
Conrad Benner
So if you're into growing your business.
- [28:22]
El Toro
Your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever customers are scrolling or strolling.
- [28:27]
Conrad Benner
Upgrade your business and get the same.
- [28:28]
El Toro
Checkout top brands like all birds use. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com podcast free. All lowercase go to shopify.com podcast free.
- [28:39]
Conrad Benner
To upgrade your selling today. Okay, where were we? I think we were talking about the museum with a lot of dead body parts, but onto something more appetizing. So we met an artist who goes by El Toro. Typically doesn't share his true identity. We'll call him Justin because that is his first name or just El Toro. He's using Sharpies to trace out what appears to be a food themed mural.
- [29:05]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
So my piece is called Sweet Dreams. It's full with Just nostalgic candies. You like growing up. Ice cream donuts, little mochi balls, a drippy rainbow, and just fun characters.
- [29:18]
Conrad Benner
Just gonna pause for the train.
- [29:21]
Fidelity Representative
Okay, so tell me a little bit about when you were designing your mural. Did you have a color scheme in mind? Did you have themes you wanted to include?
- [29:29]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Totally. I definitely wanted to include UBE since ube's so hot right now. And then there's another flavor called pandan, which is the green that I wanted to incorporate as well because I feel like, you know, you see traditional ice cream, it's usually pink or chocolate or vanilla. With this, I wanted to catch like some people a little bit off with like the green flavor and the purple icing and like, you know, just to be like, okay, you can interpret it as icing, but if you know it's ube, okay.
- [29:53]
Conrad Benner
Just a culinary pit stop here. So UBE is a yam from the Philippines. At first glance, it looks like a dirt colored potato on the outside, but you cut it open and it's bright purple. It looks like a cartoon and it tastes sweet and kind of nutty. Filipino desserts are the best desserts because they are purple and UBE a lot of times, and I always love them. Now, pandan is a tropical plant. It has spiky leaves and its flavors described like vanilla and hazelnut, and it turns desserts almost like a neon lime green. Also, as long as we're just doling out context. El Toro, bit of a street art icon, and he has this horned avatar that's inspired by the Philippine water buffalo. So picture a bull in a candy shop.
- [30:44]
Fidelity Representative
And what about your El Toro character? What story did you want to tell did you want to depict in this mural?
- [30:51]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Wow. I mean, I just really wanted to have fun. You know, when I make art, I don't feel like I cater to adults for art. It's a lot of like the kids, basically. Yeah, I just want it to be very playful. I feel like art is very. Art is subjective, of course, but it's very geared to like adult or like, you know, more high class or high sophisticated, quote unquote. But then like, nobody think about the kids to just enjoy and then, you know, they watch cartoons or whatever. But like a mural for kids would be nice. There's a bunch of families here in Fishtown now, so I really wanted to some sort of like anchor point for kids to be like, oh, I know that candy or, oh, that's like really bright and sweet and there's like a, like a throwback of that Strawberry candy that somehow your grandma has.
- [31:35]
Conrad Benner
Yes, yes.
- [31:36]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
But nobody knows where to buy it.
- [31:38]
Conrad Benner
Yeah.
- [31:38]
Fidelity Representative
Where does it come from?
- [31:40]
Conrad Benner
Can you believe that just last week we did a whole episode on Candy Confectiology with candy historian Susan Benjamin? And yes, we did cover those strawberry purse candies in every great aunt's handbag. But also, as long as we're talking kids and candy, we have shorter classroom safe smologies episodes just in general. They're now in their own feed just for your smalllogites. But yes, a feast of a mural.
- [32:05]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
So those little like visual anchors I like to put in the mural just so like everyone can connect to something.
- [32:11]
Fidelity Representative
And now when it comes to the work you do, because you're a prolific and well known street artist.
- [32:17]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Oh, thank you very much.
- [32:18]
Fidelity Representative
And you work a lot in stickers. Tell me about the change in media to you and how did you approach that?
- [32:26]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Oh, I mean, I've always drawn since I was a small kid and that's always just been inherent to me. The stickers was just a medium that when I started, nobody was using too much of. And being a, like a young college broke artist, stickers were free from the post office. So there wasn't a lot of buying of materials, let's say, that was needed to get this like hobby accomplished. And so from that, it's been 20 years since I started. I just try all the mediums and see what I kind of gravitate to what's fun to me. You know, I do a lot of spray paint, but this, this mural I'm going to do with brushes just because I've been painting a lot lately. So I think that'll be a nice transition.
- [33:06]
Fidelity Representative
It's bonkers to see you on a ladder and on a scaffold and you're using the projection method with Sharpies. You have a few in your pocket in case you drop one.
- [33:16]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Yes, yes, I have a pocket full of Sharpies right now and a bag full of markers as well.
- [33:20]
Fidelity Representative
Have you had a Sharpie run out on this wall yet? Because it's a lot to draw.
- [33:24]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Yeah, the thing is, it's not even the ink. It's the nib of the Sharpie that gets eaten up by the texture of the wall. But other than that, it's all right.
- [33:33]
Fidelity Representative
How about the application? When you're up that close, is it difficult to figure out what color goes where or are you mostly thinking of it in blocks?
- [33:43]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Oh, I like to work basically in blocks. With this, it's just for the outline. And then after this part is finished, it's just paint by numbers.
- [33:51]
Fidelity Representative
Okay.
- [33:51]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Yeah.
- [33:51]
Fidelity Representative
Do you feel like you get in a zone where you could be going and going for a while, but you're.
- [33:56]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Like, oh, your legs and muscles just to, like, kind of quiver a lot more up there? You know, you try to focus, but I still have to come down a lot of times.
- [34:04]
Fidelity Representative
What about murals in the world or in Philly? Do you have any that have really made an impact on you? Any public art that really you think about?
- [34:12]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Yeah, yeah, a few. When I was in Amsterdam, I saw so many nice, huge public mural arts. Like, one of my favorite artists, D. Face, did one, did a full building with, like, the whole facade was covered. Wow. In his, like, character work.
- [34:27]
Conrad Benner
So Deface or Dean Stockton's work is kind of Lichtenstein esque with vintage comic book images of leading men or ingenues that are locked in an embrace. But maybe one of them has a skeleton face or has the green pallor of a zombie. And D. Face's Amsterdam mural is called I Feel so Incomplete, and It depicts this 1950s blonde woman wincing toward a huge spray paint can of pink graffiti that's coming her way. So maybe old aesthetics threatened by the new. I'm not the artist, but it's cool.
- [35:02]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
So the D. Face mural definitely is one that I keep thinking about just because of the scale and, like, how do you do something like that? Especially, you know, with this 17 foot wall. It's already been like four hours and I'm dead tired.
- [35:17]
Fidelity Representative
Yeah, four hours is a long time.
- [35:20]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
It's just that he covered like a full. Like, it looked like an apartment building's facade full of everything. So I just think about that sometimes. Like, okay, it's. It's possible. Or like, you know, don't complain about the 17 food. Maybe you'll get a full building. You never know, man. You know, you got to be prepared for it.
- [35:38]
Fidelity Representative
Any advice to people who have no idea where to start if they're just like, an artist who would love to do either street art or public. Any advice for your former self?
- [35:51]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Don't get caught.
- [35:52]
Conrad Benner
That's actually good advice.
- [35:54]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
That is one of my biggest advice is don't get caught because it is a bitch to pay for lawyer fees and other court fees. And community service is not that fun.
- [36:03]
Fidelity Representative
Is community service having to paint over anyone else's work? Cause I was fucking Zach.
- [36:07]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
No, thankfully not.
- [36:09]
Fidelity Representative
What's the best way to not get caught?
- [36:10]
Conrad Benner
Aside from like, not breaking the law or whatever, of course.
- [36:15]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Work on your cardio and run fast.
- [36:18]
Fidelity Representative
Thank you for letting me ask you so many questions.
- [36:20]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Oh, anytime. The sillier the better.
- [36:22]
Fidelity Representative
Okay, good.
- [36:23]
Conrad Benner
So ask artsy people, maybe obvious questions like how do you do that? And thank you for joining us on this little field trip to mural making in Philly. Again, huge thanks to the Mural Arts program of Philadelphia, to Conrad Benner, to all the artists, and to SkyPA scientists Dr. Sarah McAnulty for the intro. And you can find links to the artist's work right in the show notes as well as a link to our website which has more research and links to photos and everything you might need. And keep an ear out for more field trips and patrons@patreon.com Ologies let me know in the comments for this episode. Where else you want me to visit because I'm game now. We are logies on Instagram and Twitter. I'm Ally Ward on both. Smallogies are our Kid Friendly Classroom Safe episodes. Those are available wherever you get podcasts. Ologies Merch is available at ologiesmerch.com Erin Talbert Admin Zoologies Podcast Facebook Group Avileen Malik makes our professional transcripts. Kelly Dwyer does the website. Jake Chaffee, assistant edits. Susan Hale is our managing director. Noel Dilworth is the scheduling producer and the lead producer and lead editor who also did some writing for this episode. Thank you. Is the multi talented Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio. Huge thanks for taking the reins on this. Nick Thorburn made the theme music and if you stick around to the end of the episode, I tell you a secret this week it's that I have realized the most comfortable garment to wear is. Well first off, my ragged yellow sweater I've had for like 10 years and I still wear in public despite having a stain on it. Oxiclean couldn't bust it. I don't know what to do. But yeah, the best, most comfortable garment I have just realized is a turtleneck tank top. Your neck is warm, your pits are aired, you can layer a cardigan over it without the sleeves getting bunched and it's oddly, dare I say, a little sexy in like a vintage Sharon Stone kind of a Basic Instinct kind of way, but without exposing your crotch to the camera. And last year I bought like a 10 pack of black T shirts to wear and the other day I was like wait a minute, I cut off the sleeves. So I got a tank top and then I used one sleeve and I crudely sewed it at the neckline. People, I made myself the first of what I assure you will be many DIY Franken shirt, turtleneck, tank tops. I'm calling them turtle tanks. If you have an old T shirt to sacrifice, there's a little tip from your dad. Ward. Love mine. I'm making more. Okay, bye. Bye.
- [38:40]
Fidelity Representative
Pachydermatology Homeology Cryptozoology Litology Nanotechnology Meteorology Mold Factology Mapology Serology Cellular.
- [38:59]
Iris Barbee Pendergrass
Painting is fun.
- [39:02]
Conrad Benner
It does nice things to you.
- [39:05]
El Toro
Do you ever watch TV and think, wow, I'm really good at this? You're right. With rewards on sling watching 30 minutes of TV daily gives you chances to win up to $10,000 in cash and other monthly prizes. Sign up for Sling or Stream for free with Sling Freestream to get rewarded for watching TV. Sling lets you do that. Visit sling.com to learn more and get started. No purchase necessary for it. We're prohibited by law. Visit sling.com for more details.
- [39:32]
Alie Ward
Where'd you get those shoes?
- [39:34]
Conrad Benner
Easy.
- [39:35]
Alie Ward
They're from dsw. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com.