Rendering of what Ellis' mural will look like when complete

St Johns is getting a new mural by illustrator extraordinaire Carson Ellis and the first part will be unveiled tomorrow May 11th at 10:00AM on 7741 N. Lombard. Details can be found on RACC's site and for a little more critical context PORT reviewed Ellis' show at PCC a few years ago here.

RACC certainly has been busy lately with a very cool public art pavillion by Jorge Pardo and a disappointingly "Quirky" lantern installation being installed in Chinatown but Ellis is an excellent choice for St. Johns. Ellis has a flair for evoking that now rare childhood nihilism you find in Russian folk tales and fusing it with an air of not so anachronistic chivalry (that plays so well with the St. Johns bridge). There is a sense of honest discovery in the work and frankly I've always found it more compelling than the Decemberist's music, which it is often used to support... in fact if I were to pick the most accurate depiction of Portland as a city Id pick her work... not say Portlandia, Grimm, The Shins or Decemberists. She simply has more edge than the whole lot of em.

According to RACC: "City Commissioner Amanda Fritz and Oregon Speaker of the House Tina Kotek will cut the ribbon at the celebration. The mural will be one of the first things that people see upon entering St. Johns from the east along N. Lombard. Carson's design was painted by Whitney Anderson, an artist with 20 years of experience painting murals, carnival rides and other outdoor works. Then, stick around for the 51st Annual St. Johns Parade that begins at 12:00 Noon."