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Which color isn't right?

Which color isn't right?

A line of 15-foot-high yew trees has been planted to obscure the view of an abstract anti-smoking mural on the side of a McKees Rocks building, and the owner of that property said those who oppose the mural are less concerned with the bright background colors of the painting than they are with the colors of the children the mural depicts, as in their races.

Donna DiGiulio, proprietor of Adona Services Inc., a Chartiers Avenue print design firm, said she and her husband donated the wall of their building to the project and began receiving complaints about it only after the first sketches in the mural went up and depicted children with African-American features.

"The minute they went up, we started to get complaints," DiGiulio said.

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"That's really what it was."

Steve Mellon and Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette
Top: The mural in McKees Rocks as it appeared in late November. Bottom: The mural now partially blocked by trees.
Click photo for larger image.

She said her business received phone calls and visits from "concerned citizens" including the management of neighboring McDermott Funeral Home.

Tim Wilt, business manager of McDermott Funeral Home, did not return calls to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Sponsored by the McKees Rocks social services agency Focus On Renewal, the mural is painted in primarily bright hues of orange and purple. The roughly 20-by-100-foot mural covers the side of the building at 1209 Chartiers Ave.

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It depicts a multiethnic group of strong, healthy children standing on a bunch of crushed cigarettes while others engage in athletic activities such as swimming, cycling and dancing.

Funded by a grant under the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Tobacco Free Allegheny's The Music and Arts as Prevention program, the mural was designed by local artist and Art Institute of Pittsburgh alum Kyle Holbrook.

Holbrook said the concept of this mural was to focus on the positive activities that youth can engage in if they maintain a tobacco-free lifestyle. A group of about 20 kids from the Sto-Rox area, ages 8-18, would meet twice weekly during the fall to discuss and plan the project, then paint it on Saturday mornings.

DiGiulio said she was approached by FOR in September and that she and her husband, Donald, were shown a thumbnail sketch of what the mural would look like and then gave the project their blessing.

"We didn't have a problem with it. It was to be an anti-smoking message. We met the artist, who was a very nice young man. My husband and I had no issues with it. As far as we were concerned, we donated the wall. They told me it was going to be bright, and I said you guys need to go over and get McDermott's approval and they said that they did."

Wilt has said the funeral home had given initial approval, but that it was never presented with sketches of what the mural would look like or what colors it would be.

McDermott objected to the color scheme, saying that it was too loud for a residential area and could harm the business of the funeral home, which he said is a "subdued atmosphere."

Furthermore, he said, the anti-smoking message is difficult to decipher.

In late November, McDermott hired a contractors to erect an elaborate L-shaped stone block wall that goes to the edge of the funeral home's property line in the parking lot and runs the length of the neighboring building. A little more than 6-feet high and 15 feet wide, the wall is tiered and has planter space in the middle of each level where the yews were planted.

Wilt told the Post-Gazette then that the wall was not a new idea and that the funeral home had planned for some time to do additional landscaping, "when funds were available," but conceded that after the mural went up, it decided to speed up plans and build the wall immediately.

DiGiulio said the she was particularly upset because the children were not given a chance to complete the mural.

"It wasn't finished. It wasn't anywhere near finished. They made a judgement call on something they hadn't even seen yet. We made an offer that even if they didn't like it, to let the kids finish it and then in the spring they would cover it over," DiGiulio said. "They said, 'It will never be finished.' "

The Rev. Regis Ryan, executive director of FOR, said McDermott threatened to have the group arrested if they set foot in the parking lot again. Ryan said he would have welcomed the charge if only to have the opportunity to challenge it in court.

The DiGiulios have been in business at that location since 1999, and said that they have not had any sort of relationship with McDermott.

"It was not good, not bad, not anything. We had no problems with them one way or the other," she said, adding, "My husband and I think it stinks that we were chastised like this."

The mural was to be completed Nov. 20 and dedicated Nov. 27. FOR program director Tracy Scanlon said the group held an informal dedication ceremony Dec. 4 at the Christ Community Church in McKees Rocks and that the group would plan more public art projects in the future.

The faces of some of the children in the mural still manage to peek out from beyond the tree line, calling to mind the "Kilroy Was Here" graffiti of World War II.

DiGiulio said her neighbors would have to continue to maintain the landscaping if they want the mural to continue to be unseen, because, she said, she will keep it on her building as long as she owns it.

"It's staying. It's not going anywhere."

First Published: December 15, 2004, 5:00 a.m.

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