A colorful new mural, a part of America Carrillo’s “America Paints America” project, popped up in downtown Greensburg this week.
Located on the side of The Stereoshop Inc building, the new piece stating ‘I told the stars about you’ is the 13th mural and state a part of the project America began in 2017 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“I decided to paint a mural in every state because I love to travel,” said America. “I love the idea of leaving a piece of myself in all the beautiful places I visit.”
America has designed and painted in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois, Utah, Massachusetts and now Pennsylvania. She finds the perfect building for her current concept by what she calls ‘mural shopping’ where she drives around to find a wall that fits what she is looking for. She found The Stereoshop building and saw a door way that fit into her concept and talked to the manager and building owners for approval. After talking about the concept and project, John and Melanie Harris, the owners, loved it and gave the okay to brighten up their building.
“America showed us the design and concept and we thought it was a good idea,” said Melanie Harris, building owner. “We thought it would attract people to the building and liven up the area. It turned out great!”
She designs the mural ahead of time for the most part once she gets a feel for the city or location she is painting. The Greensburg mural took her two days to paint after she got the go ahead.
“I don’t waste any time,” said America. “Once they said okay, I started that night!”
When she’s not painting murals, she is collaging. America cuts and pastes various images together and occasionally adds found objects to the pieces. Each composition is unique and thought provoking. These collages inspire the murals for her project. To fund some of the murals, she sells her art and digital prints of her art. America is heading to Asheville, North Carolina for her next mural.
You can follow America and her ‘American Paints America’ mural tour on her Instagram (@americanpaintsamerica) and purchase her art on her website.
As with all of the public art in Greensburg we encourage you to enjoy and take photos tagging the artist and Downtown Greensburg Project so we can share. Please be considerate of the space, building and owners while enjoying the art!
