All Photos By Gail
The late Supreme Court Justice and champion of women’s rights, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has been honored with a gorgeous collage mural depicting her face among vibrantly-colored, iconic images that reflect her wildly-accomplished career. Created by street artist Elle over a period of about ten-days in the first two weeks of November, the mural’s location at the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street was formerly home to this mural by Shepard Fairey, which was completed in October of 2016. With the way this year has been going, we needed a fresh and inspiring new artwork in this space, and Elle really delivered.
The mural is close enough to my home that I was able to visit the site at various stages of completion; my very first sighting occurring on November 13th, during one of my twilight-time walks. What luck to also capture this very colorful graffiti box truck, which was parked on First Avenue at the time.
See More Photos of Elle’s RBG Memorial Mural After The Jump!
At this point, Ruth’s face is completed, and Elle was about to start filling-in the surrounding details. Exciting!
The next time I passed the mural was during my lunch break on November 16th, and Elle was onsite, actively working on the piece. You can see her in the orange cherry picker, wearing a yellow knit cap. A sign on the cherry picker let’s those watching know that the mural is sponsored by the Lisa Project.
I appreciate that Elle’s representation of Lady Justice — a well-known symbol of our justice system — is painted pink.
I believe the mural was completed on November 21st, and I stopped by the following day to check it out!
Although it was just mid-afternoon, a storm was coming in, and the sky was very dark and ominous. Somehow, Ruth’s face just lights up the street.
Here a detail shot taken on a sunnier day. You will notice that a tenant has hung a Rainbow Flag in their window to compliment the piece. The quote “Women Belong” painted on a banner held by eagle is part of Ginsburg’s famous quote: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
Godspeed, RBG!