![Homecoming [Bluebirds] by Charley Harper](http://visualingual.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/homecoming1.jpg?w=450 "Homecoming [Bluebirds] by Charley Harper")
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you already know that I’m a big Charley Harper fan: I’ve already geeked out over his Ford Times serigraphs, paintings, and collaborative series with the Modernist architect Rudy Hermes, among many examples of his work. This mural based on his lithograph Homecoming [Bluebirds] was just completed in downtown Cincinnati.
Located on Walnut St. at Court, this is the work of local public art nonprofit ArtWorks. The mural team was led by Jenny Ustick who, last summer, led the execution of The Singing Mural designed by renowned illustrator C.F. Payne.
Clearly, Jenny has the experience and ability to recreate the work of others, but you can also find her own murals around Cincinnati, including Clifton Heights and Over-the-Rhine.
This mural is ArtWorks‘ largest to date [although they seem to outdo themselves every summer, so I'm sure there will be an even larger one coming in 2013]:
![Homecoming [Bluebirds] by Charley Harper](http://visualingual.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/homecoming2.jpg?w=450 "Homecoming [Bluebirds] by Charley Harper")
You know what I really love about this location? The mural is basically right next to Sam Caldwell & Co. Inc., Painters, Decorators, one of my favorite downtown ghost signs and apparently the work of the sign painter Charles Keiger. See?
![Homecoming [Bluebirds] by Charley Harper](http://visualingual.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/homecoming3.jpg?w=450 "Homecoming [Bluebirds] by Charley Harper")
Check out the “before” photo of the wall, plus some photos of the mural in progress.
FYI, there are two other Harper murals in downtown Cincinnati. One is in the J.W. Peck Federal Building, and there’s another one in the Convention Center that has been covered up for years but will hopefully at some point be uncovered and restored.
Wow! That adds so much class to the building! If you can’t have windows, why not a mural?
Pretty cool, right?
What a difference this mural has made. I like the ghost sign visible in the background of the last photo.
Big fan of Charley Harper. Although I tend to prefer his urban-themed works to the nature stuff, I’m not going to turn my nose up at this mural.
I think this is my favorite ArtWorks mural from this summer’s batch.
Thanks for the props! This was THE most fun to work on.
Jenny, congratulations to you and your team on a job well done!
This mural brightens my day five days a week when I walk past it en route to work. So does the fruit mural on the Kroger building. Maybe you could do a post on that one?
Will do! The scaffolding was just removed, and it usually takes me a few weeks before I happen to catch a mural on a nice day in good light. I hope to eventually check out and document at least most of this summer’s murals, if not all.