Artist’s series of 50 murals sends a message to West Philadelphia: P.S. I love you

Mural artist to West Philadelphia: P.S. I love you

PHILADELPHIA — The heartfelt rooftop messages promise it all, from dinner and car fare to day care and everlasting love. But you have to read fast.

Designed to be spotted scavenger-hunt-style from the elevated train rumbling through West Philadelphia, the “Love Letter” series of 50 murals was an ambitious undertaking even in a city known for such public art.

The recently finished project, which teamed a former graffiti tagger with his onetime (friendly) nemesis, parallels nearly 20 blocks of track. It gives riders glimpses into an imaginary love story through colorful images and quirky phrases of longing, like “Your everafter is all I’m after.”

“It animates a neglected, ignored part of the city,” said Paula Marincola, executive director of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, which funded the project. “It transforms a humdrum, everyday experience — riding the El — into something magical and wonderful and fun.”

The murals are also a love letter to West Philly from native Steve Powers. The 41-year-old artist, who designed the concept for the same walls he used to tag, aims to heal an area hit hard by drugs, violence and a years-long public works project that devastated local businesses.

This time, Powers asked permission to paint. Mixing graphics with funky lettering, he and his crew created dozens of love notes on upper-story rowhouse walls: “Forever begins when you say yes”; “Holler and hear my heartbeat”; “For you I got daycare and carfare for now on.”

Artistically, the walls pay homage to what Powers calls the lost art of sign painting. And he thinks of them like trading cards: Riders will see some frequently, while others are more rare.

“In some cases, you have to get off at the station and you have to walk down the steps; in other places, you have to bounce all over the train, and look out windows and look forwards and backwards,” Powers said. “(You) have to really participate in all of West Philly in order to see it all.”

Powers vandalized these same rooftops in the 1980s and ’90s, ignoring entreaties from Jane Golden, then head of the city’s Anti-Graffiti Network, to use his skills — and their equipment — to eliminate blight through approved murals.

Such sanctioned artwork “was extremely boring to me,” Powers recalled. “And I had all the freedom I wanted in the street. I didn’t have to ask anybody permission. I was short on supplies and scaffolding, but I had all the freedom I wanted.”

Golden remembered Powers as full of “spunk and enthusiasm,” with an “evolved philosophy” about where he would tag and why.

“He definitely was smart and talented and very enthusiastic. He also, I think, always saw his graffiti writing as a form of art,” Golden said. “It’s just really we were on separate paths.”

In 1994, Powers moved to New York. He later went legit, writing a book on graffiti; displaying work at galleries and Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art; starting a sign-painting initiative at Coney Island; and traveling to Ireland on a Fulbright scholarship.

Though Powers first envisioned the “Love Letter” concept 20 years ago, he did not have support for it until partnering with Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program — headed by Golden. In May 2008, Pew awarded them a $261,000 grant.

Following Golden’s policy of community involvement, Powers held neighborhood meetings about the project and offered sign-painting workshops, both to discourage graffiti and teach job skills.

“Graffiti is like a little kid testing a microphone, and sign painting is speaking to a crowd with authority,” Powers said.

He also offered to replace local store signs to help merchants recover from the El rebuilding project, which closed parts of busy Market Street for long stretches at a time.

Major League Cuts barber shop, which employee Bryant Jones said lost customers because of the construction, now bears one of Powers’ sweet nothings on its wall: “If you were here I’d be home now,” it says, painted in giant refrigerator-magnet letters.

Jones thinks the mural might inspire budding young artists — and perhaps stimulate business.

“It may help to bring out more people,” Jones said.

Powers agreed, saying that people are rediscovering the community now that the El project is finished.

“The neighborhood’s really on its way,” Powers said. “And I want people to get off the train and see it.”

Love Letter project: www.aloveletterforyou.com

Mural Arts Program: www.muralarts.org