Steve Hamm Photo
Painting by numbers is no longer the home crafts fad that it once was, but two New Haven artists dusted off and rejuvenated the practice for a socially-conscious mural project in the Hill neighborhood on Saturday.
Artists Isaac Bloodworth and Kyle Kearson sketched the outlines of a portrait of civil rights icon Coretta Scott King on an exterior wall of the Five Star Laundromat Center, and neighbors gathered at the wall and pitched in on the mural.
The Five Star Laundry Mural.m4v
The project is one of 39 murals being executed in cities and towns around the state by Hartford-based CT Murals through its MLK39 Racial Equity Mural Tour.
“I grew up on Adeline Street, four blocks down,” said one participant, Solomon Green. “It’s amazing to be be able drive down the sreet and say I took part in making a beautiful piece.”
Isaac Bloodworth.
The program celebrates the life and work of America’s great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968 when he was just 39 years old. Putting murals in public spaces has become a powerful source of community pride and social-change messaging.