Detroit based Artist Pat Perry was commissioned to paint a mural on something that fit thematically with Detroit and the culture of the surrounding neighborhoods. He decided to paint a portrait of his neighbor with his mini bike as the artist wanted to try to put something up that the kids in his neighborhood would see themselves in.
In a statement the artist said: “Despite this social moment of rapidly shifting rhetoric, viral memes and online activism, despite Anti-racist PR statements by our favorite Fortune 500 companies, and despite a lot of self-congratulations, wicked problems in these urban neighborhoods incessantly persist. If you live in one like me, you know what I’m talking about. Concentrated poverty persists. Threats of point-blank, non metaphorical violence persist. A lack of political will to make meaningful material change, persists. Oversimplified performances that provide cover-fire for life-or-death indifference, persist. Tribalism dogma persists, lip service persists, and in underserved areas, real change seems often hard to see.”
He added: “Most of all, youth in these neighborhoods, from a top-down perspective, remain devalued. Under the high-vis glitz and numerous noneconomic commitments, devaluation persists symbolically and concretely. Detroit is still Detroit. While painting this, I had a chance to try to meditate on that. Also, to remind myself that in the end painting pictures isn’t the most important part. The audience-garnering acts (including this social media post and the soapboxing herein) are frivolous compared to the unfabulous-yet-consequential acts and basic decencies that our day-in-day-out lives justly require.”
Born in Michigan, Pat Perry is an artist that bases his work and illustrations on subtle details that reveal everyday encounters one might pass by and not think twice about. He brilliantly portrays unique and confusingly accurate observations to the surrounding world. As a prolific creator, many of his pictorials are inspired by his love for travel, experiencing new cultures and what he’s encountered along the way. A vital part of his process is the dedication to draw and paint on a daily basis. Which as an adventurer, he continues to cultivate spectacular imagery with his keen perspective.
