Street art mural created by students from The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts
A few students from The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts created this commissioned street art mural, which is located by the Long Island Expressway and 35th Street. The work that the students did counted for their required community service hours. This piece of artwork is visible as one travels from Brooklyn back to Long Island. The mural is on the side of a short building, but it is very easily seen from a distance because the street that many cars are on is at a higher elevation than the street on which this street art mural is. The mural takes up the entire side of a building, so it definitely catches commuters’ eyes. But, the graffiti art can only be reached through many side streets and only then can viewers examine the art closely. The mural is also not as clearly visible at night because there are not any street lights that can illuminate the artwork. Although the mural was finished in 2012, there are already other pieces of graffiti there that were not done by the students from the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.
The mural definitely brightens up the surrounding area because all the other buildings are gray colored, so the bright colored paint of this mural sparks interest and curiosity in viewers. Viewers can tell that this piece of artwork took much time and effort, so viewers may ask questions about what the theme of the mural is, which seems to be mythological creatures, due to the presence of centaurs, dragons, and fairies. The artwork is amazing because each figure has so much detail. The shading techniques, facial details such as wrinkles, and the preciseness of each blade of grass show that the artists are very skilled and that much effort was put into creating this piece. The artists’ purpose seems to be to brighten up the mural’s surrounding area and also to give passerby and drivers something interesting to look at. Also, this mural may have been an opportunity for the students at The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts to practice any graffiti art techniques that they studied in school. This piece of artwork was meant to last as many different people on a daily basis view it.
I love the idea that this mural attracts grafitti – as if it gave permission in a sense for others to paint there.