“All my work is about walking through a neighborhood or city and making a collage of buildings [in a kind of fictional, abstract way] with perceptual drawing,” says Miriam Singer, a longtime Fishtown muralist.
She’s an observant artist. Part of her method is immersing herself in her subject and making note of what’s around. She doodles and snaps photos of what she sees while exploring – and oftentimes, those little fragments make their way into the larger design.
Her latest display of this is located on the side of the winery Mural City Cellars on the corner of Frankford Avenue and Berks Street. The bright mural, called “Berks Street Map” for Mural Arts Philly, encapsulates the essence of being in Fishtown.
“It’s almost like an abstract cityscape map. Abstraction mixed with representation,” she says. “It was developed through direct observation, invention and original photographs I took throughout the neighborhood. It combines whimsical objects, repeating patterns, repeating colors, shapes and abstract forms with recognizable imagery drawn from the area.”
Notable Fishtown emblems pop amongst the scene: the historic Harbison’s milk bottle, the El, a roundabout at York and Trenton avenues, the old police horse stable (now Forest & Main Brewing Co.), LMNO Mexican restaurant and plenty of fencing, street lamps and unique architecture.
It’s lively and created with a combination of eyecatching colors. Light blues and lavenders, bright reds and oranges, muted greens and yellows. For this mural, the winery wanted something colorful that popped on Berks.
Fishtown muralist Miriam Singer’s colorful “Berks Street Map” transforms the side of Mural City Cellars at Frankford Avenue and Berks Street into an abstract cityscape inspired by the neighborhood. Created for Mural Arts Philadelphia, the mural blends recognizable Fishtown landmarks with whimsical patterns, shapes and colors drawn from Singer’s observations of the community.
The project has been a bit of a quick turnaround. Back in November, Singer’s project manager, RJ Rushmore, was working with the winery to replace the existing, 10-plus-year-old mural. Singer was selected as the artist. After getting the project authorized, she spent time sketching, preparing and securing her team of assistant artists (Emma Wiggans, Gerik Forston, Mina Fujii, Dominique Messihi, Ibi Padron Venegas, Isabel West, Ailisha Goodwin-Dancy, Paddy Magdon, Phillip Adamsand Raleigh Burns). The painting began back in early May, and it was wrapped in late July.
But this was no challenge for Singer, who’s become a well-known muralist with too many murals to count under her belt. She moved to Philly in 2004 after earning an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art, and she became a teacher for Mural Arts shortly after. Soon, she began working as an assistant artist with the organization and eventually was assigned her own murals back in 2010. The three murals were part of her “Take Me to the River” series, which represented going to the Delaware River at Penn Treaty Park.
She also has been a teacher at Fleisher Art Memorial since 2013, where she teaches a variety of adult classes on copper etching, dry painting and screen printing on fabric. Her passion for teaching and collaborating with others plays a role in her murals as well.
Singer hosted community paint days during the early stages of “Berks Street Map.” Members of the community ages 8 and older were able to sign up online to volunteer their time and skills to paint some of the bigger color blocks on the mural. Most people were inexperienced, yet they did a great job, and Singer loved working with them all.
It also was a new experience for her. Typically, Singer’s murals are painted on parachute cloth, then put onto the wall. She said this is usually more helpful for community paint days, since it’s easier for touching up. This project used direct painting, meaning it was painted directly on the wall. However, this process worked out well for her (she was able to utilize the wall’s background color) and there were barely any touchups needed.
“I’m a muralist who really enjoys the process. Seeing the process as it goes up is almost like watching a movie unfold,” she said.
Another rewarding part of the process? Becoming part of the community.
“One of my favorite parts of murals is just getting to know people and introducing them to painting murals. I love it. I feel like if you’re kind of involved with murals, you somehow are interested in being involved in the community,” she said.
“Doing these kinds of projects encourages people to take part and have fun,” she continued. “You end up talking to a lot of people passing by and just become almost like a communicator on the street. That’s a fun part of the gig.”
