Staff Blog
Pay-your-own-way hope: the self-funded Obama mural
It seems there’s no end to the as-yet-unsubstantiated hopes people have attached to Barack Obama. Even before he was elected, artist Michelle Angela Ortiz gathered locals in Fairhill to paint an Obama mural — the kind of tribute paid to martyred civil rights leaders or people who were already president and already did something. (Drew Lazor posted about it, along with a roundup of other Obama murals, on Monday.)
From WHYY.org:
Yes, you heard right: "Ortiz is an Obama supporter and was approached by the campaign to do the mural. The entire process, including materials, was done without pay or reimbursement."
A campaign that brought in record-shattering revenue couldn't have thrown a North Philly artist a couple hundred bucks for a permanent advertisement?
Obama, not only have you unintentionally forged titanic expectations of your presidency that will forever be held in front of you on a rowhome wall — you also owe Michelle some paint.
Is that really fair to Obama?
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for noticing the Obama mural I created on Hope Street! Yes,it would have been nice to get some paints.
BUT! This was completely a collaborative and volunteer project. The lot where we created the mural was filled with trash and the community and the Obama campaign volunteers came together to clean and help with this mural. The intention of the mural was to bring people together and to encourage the Latino community to vote for the candidate that best served their needs and the needs of their children.
I had left over paints and did what I had to do in four days with what I had… The money from the campaign was not important. I saw it as a donation.
Finally, The most important thing was seeing kids, neighbors, strangers coming together (which doesn’t always happen so easily in Philly) to make a change with this mural. That alone is satisfying to me.
Paid in full with hope,
Michelle A. Ortiz
Wow! I am really surprised about this article. Michelle has done many meaningful murals in the latin community. This particular one has more of a stronger, hopeful and inspiring meaning to it. There are so many hateful and negative people in this world including Andrew, who doesn’t see the positive aspect of this mural. Cleaning up Philadelphia, bringing the community together and showing kids that there are plenty of things for them to focus on rather selling drugs,crime and abuse. For example, art,dance, music or sports. Obama has been an inspiration to our community and hope will finally come on January 20th. Yes, he will fix this big mess that our current president has done in these 8 looooong years!! Change will finally come!
I worked on the mural with Michelle and volunteered my time. I agree Andrew, it is important that Philly artists need to be supported, compensated for their work and the time it takes to accomplish a task like Michelle’s mural. It is especially important for those artists who work in communities like Hope Street in North Philly. They are often under-funded and the “quality” of their work underestimated, especially in the Philadelphia mainstream arts world.
There have been many things said about North Philadelphia and its people. Good, bad, and ugly. Yet it is not often recognized that we are a philanthropic to the core and believe in giving back and lifting up. I have a strong belief in “what comes around goes around” and that participating in the making of this mural served many purposes as Michelle stated. The least being the feeling of ownership and empowerment of the children and their families on Hope Street to begin to see that change is possible and that folks who don’t live there or who may not be part of the culture, care about their safety and quality of life.
I supported Obama, voted for him, and worked on the mural because I felt the historic significance of this moment in history. My parents emigrated from Puerto Rico in the 50’s and experienced racism because of the color of their skin and their accents. Their high education and work ethics were of no consequence and became a barrier, leaving them to struggle through the symptoms of poverty, the most dangerous of those being hopelessness. This mural helped to re-engage a dialogue about the power of the relationship between Latinos and African Americans in Philadelphia, our shared experience and ancestry.
I am very clear that I have great expectations and what I expect in return for my vote and support is a job done with integrity, realistic goals, and brilliant strategies towards unraveling the mess left behind by the last administration. I believe that 30+ hours of my time is a good exchange for 8 years of historic possibilities.