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The mural entitled Reaching Out can tell us several stories. It is the story of a turbulent journey through a raging sea. The waves as tall as a two-story building collapsed onto the vessel, leaving no trace of it, with a single survivor reaching out from under the waters in the hope of a helping hand. That helping hand reaches out to them, offering them a promise of surviving the ordeal and coming out of it more experienced and prepared for the storms the world is yet to offer. The mural depicts two hands reaching toward each other, with the image being reminiscent of the hand of God and Adam in Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam.
The mural is the story of a lonely soul being lost in the forest. The path out of the woods was not easy to find at first, and the woodland’s darkness nearly consumed the lost one. Yet, they applied the wisdom and knowledge passed onto them from the previous generations and are now on the path to the light. In the mural, the community overlooks the lost person on their way out of the woods, ensuring their safety. The third story is about a child from a community besieged by troubles. Yet, the child knows that there is always a helping hand nearby and that the support of their family and neighbors will guide them through all life’s troubles. So, the child looks hopefully into the sea and the forest, their eyes glimmering with hope.
My series of stories relate to the mural Reaching Out as the three tales relay the narrative of help, support, and hope for the future. This hope is not unsubstantiated; it is built gradually over generations. Each generation has a story of supporting and helping each other in order to create a better future. As the mural has three separate scenes, it felt appropriate to write three stories instead of one. However, as in the mural, the tales are connected through the same message of hope. Telling these narratives helped me understand the artwork better and make it feel more personal. I may not live in the Kensington neighborhood, but I appreciate the idea communicated by the artists to the Kensignton community.
I believe that other spectators would write different stories after viewing the mural. The message of hope and support is clear to me. However, it is important to remember that art is highly subjective. Our experiences, as much as the artistic intent, shape what we see in various artworks. Even if we share the same view, the narratives may differ and focus on distinct parts of the artwork. However, every opinion on a piece of art has merit.
The mural under consideration was completed on November 16, 2021. It is the result of the collaboration of two artists: the muralist Gabe Tiberino and graffiti artist DISTORT. The work given the title Reaching Out was intended to symbolize the local community’s hope, growth, and recovery. The mural is exhibited in the Fishtown/Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the corner of Kensington Avenue and East Hilton Street.
The first objects I noticed were the columns separating the mural into two distinct parts. The separation is supported by the color choices, with the left section depicting the raging sea and the sky above in dark sea blue, iris purple, and fire orange. The columns guide the eye from the wild seascape into a tranquil forest, painted in a bouquet of pine, forest, jungle, and mint green colors. The mural is a two-story building tall, with the seascape occupying one-third of the work and two-thirds being dedicated to the woodland scene. From the forest, the eye moves to the child’s face overlooking the mural, whose eyes reflect the fiery orange sun. The child appears to be in a field, as a bundle of light purple flowers surrounds them. In the forest, a shadowed silhouette is watched by the community members. Their figures are almost translucent, indicating that they are ever-present. In the seascape, a hand emerges from the sea, and another reaches out to help it. An eagle flies freely over the sea between columns two and three.
When looking at the mural, the eyes move in a curved line from the upper left-hand corner of the work to the upper right-hand corner. This pattern follows the physical movement in the piece, as the sea wave prepares to crush onto the forest scene on the right. The positioning of the columns and the path leading through the forest help guide the viewer’s eye from left to right. Different elements of the work are connected through careful positioning on the path of the wave-like movement. The most disjointed element of the mural, the child’s face, is connected to the seascape through the shared sky.
Art is the expression of one’s thoughts, experiences, aspirations, regrets of the past, and hopes for the future shared with the world. I believe the mural Reaching Out is an important artwork as it represents hope for the Kensignton community plagued by many problems, including homelessness and the opioid crisis. The work is not meant to adorn a neighborhood building but to give the residents hope. The mural is located in the heart of Kensington, at the intersection of Kensington Avenue and East Hilton Street, with the troubles experienced by the neighborhood being a vivid context for it. I believe if it were displayed elsewhere, for example, in a gallery, it would fail to make the same impact as on the streets of Kensington, as it is meant to give a message of hope to the community surrounded by devastation, not to be contained in the walls of an art gallery.
I enjoyed the mural and believe it is an impactful piece of art. It is masterfully painted by Tiberino and DISTORT and is a beautiful artwork. In particular, I enjoyed the color choices made by the artists. The forest scene presents a certain enigma achieved through the mixture of greens, with the light mint green of a clearing ahead of the shadowed silhouette adding a sense of mystery. The juxtaposition of the dark sea blue of the waves and the delicate violet and fire orange of the skies instantly draws attention and forces the viewers to follow the path of the movement intended by the artists. I appreciated the overall connectedness of the piece, with the scenes effortlessly blending into each other and presenting a coherent story. As the mural includes many details that are easy to miss on the first viewing, it elicits the desire to return to it repeatedly and examine each element separately. The mural draws the viewers in and commands their attention.
Even without knowing the context of the mural and the message intended by the authors, it is easy to make sense of the mural. The helping hand reaching out to the person in distress, a community looking after a person on their way through the forest, and a child looking expectantly into the future symbolize hope and support. The message behind the mural adds to its beauty and reinforces my initial judgment of it. The mural is both a stunning and meaningful piece of work.
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