Murals are one of the most prevalent, public forms of art you can find in Milwaukee. They transform blank walls into canvases that can highlight positive aspects of our culture, comment on local issues and express the values and dreams of the greater Milwaukee community.
For the second part of the series Reflections of Representation, WUWM reports from Black Cat Alley on the East Side of Milwaukee.
Inside Black Cat Alley, you’re surrounded by a burst of colorful murals. A blue hand serving a purple heart on a yellow platter. Bees swarming around pieces of honeycomb. A young girl reading a book as a galaxy of planets spreads out behind her.
Isaiah Jefferson walks through the alley with his daughter to her elementary school every day.
"My daughter enjoys art and nature, and Black Cat Alley has a lot of beautiful art and paintings that she likes to enjoy," Jefferson says.
Jefferson says the 21 murals help both of them learn about other people. One memorable trip through the alley led to a conversation about immigration and the difficulties that can come with living in a new country. He explains the mural that sparked that discussion.
"[The artist's] mom was an immigrant who had moved here, and it was dedicated to her. The people who are going through different things in their life, you can tell by the depictions in the picture," Jefferson says. "Art tells a story. Sometimes words can’t express it but the picture can."
Murals are one of the oldest forms of visual art. Many cultures throughout history have their own versions of murals, like cave paintings, hieroglyphs on the walls of Egyptian tombs, and fresco paintings created inside buildings like the Sistine Chapel in Italy.
The term mural was popularized following the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s. Murals that came out of this period often showcased cultural pride and contained social and political messages.
Milwaukee native and muralist Reynaldo Hernandez says the Mexican Muralist movement was a major inspiration for him. Hernandez has painted over 50 murals in Milwaukee. One of his most recognizable works is the Mural of Peace, on West National Avenue. It features an eagle and a dove against a backdrop of rainbow stripes. Hernandez says these images are meant to evoke feelings of peace and togetherness, while the blue lightning in the mural is a symbol for tension and conflict.
"That's the point," Hernandez says. "I try to like take written words and try to transform it into a visual form [...] and yet you can look at it and read and see what's going on."
Translating ideas into images is also what motivates Milwaukee muralist Tia Richardson.
"When you look at [a mural], you might see something different or you might see your own ideas or your own story outside of the lines of what I've drawn or the ideas that I've drawn," Richardson says.
Many of her murals are created with community input, including one at La Escuela Fratney Elementary School in Riverwest. The 40 by 16 foot mural features vivid scenes of children reading books, playing soccer and marching for their rights.
La Escuela Fratney serves students and families who have immigrated to Milwaukee from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Richardson says creating the mural meant translating those stories of immigration into art.
"That journey is very important, of getting here and putting down new roots," Richardson says. "It's a difficult journey at time. One teacher told a very moving story about some of the experiences that her students have gone through. We're talking kindergarten through fifth grade, so there's an image of a teacher giving a young student a plant."
A plant, to grow roots in a new place. Once the mural was finished, the students were happy to see their stories reflected. It’s also a mural for the broader community.
"This mural has images of the houses in the neighborhood, the style of house that's here, the school itself, and the architecture of the school. When they see it, they'll recognize their own community or landmarks," Richardson says. "I learned that that was important, the importance of people being able to recognize something of their community."
While some forms of public art in Milwaukee, like monuments and statues, don’t represent a diverse history, murals from local artists like Richardson and Hernandez help document stories that often don’t get told.
Coming up in the final part of Reflections of Representation, we learn how Vel Phillips became the first African-American woman to have a statue dedicated to her legacy on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Capitol.
