I had the pleasure this past Thursday to attend the unveiling of a new mural located in the tunnel leading to the Houston City Hall Annex.
I attended because a friend of mine, Donald Collins, was one of the artists that collaborated on the project. Here is Donald explaining the imagery of the painting:
Gotta love that shirt! I did video Donald’s speech but unfortunately he is a soft talker and the background noise of the tunnel overwhelmed his speech. Sorry about that because you would have enjoyed it. I’ll try to tell you about some of the imagery from what Donald explained to me.
Notice the background is dark gray transitioning to blue, symbolizing the journey for a person experiencing homelessness and their transition out of it. The bridge, using Houston’s Allen’s Landing Bridge as a model, symbolizes the journey from darkness to light. Likewise, the steps are the path to that journey.
The people in the shadows have yet to make the journey out. The brightly colored people symbolize the return of energy/life force once they are able to move beyond the shadows. The hands symbolize the help that is available to those who reach out from the darkness for help. And since I normally talk about politics, yes, I suspect that one of those hands represents the people’s government.
I don’t know if I captured the entire spirit of the mural but you can read more about the process of making it on The Art Project of Houston’s website.
If you are at City Hall, be sure and stop by and take a few moments to reflect on the painting.
![Artist Donald Collins](https://bigjolly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/donald-collins_IMG_1233-500x333.jpg)