Making of a Mural: Elation. Elegance. Exaltation.
The journey of a mural from conception to paint to dedication can be years along. From the hunt for the wall, to the artist selection to the community engagement process, it’s no simple task for a new mural to come to life. In this monthly series, we’ll share the behind the scenes stories on how our collection comes to life.
When Los Angeles-based artist El Mac came to Philadelphia to paint his first mural, he immersed himself in the city.
He spent evenings driving around with Mural Arts Project Manager Sarah Kolker, listening to local jazz artists and getting to know nearby neighborhoods. He even sampled his first Philly cheesesteak at Campo’s Deli. And most importantly, he found inspiration in the city’s long legacy of street art—a history he says has shaped his own style.
“Philadelphia is renowned for both its pioneering graffiti history and its murals, so it was exciting to finally go there and contribute some of my own art,” El Mac said in a statement.
A high-profile artist whose work draws from both graffiti and street art, Miles MacGregor (known professionally as El Mac) was excited to join the pantheon of artists who have inspired him throughout his career. He painted Elation. Elegance. Exaltation. while listening to Sun Ra and John Coltrane, and even named the mural after a line from Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”
“Coltrane had a spiritual awakening [in Philly] in 1957 that led to his music being infused with a devotional philosophy and sincerity that resonates with myself and my own approach to art. For this [mural] I wanted to convey a similar feeling of cosmic love and creative expression—the belief that our shared capacity to both create and connect through art is a blessing that can bring us closer together and strengthen our sense of belonging and mutuality.”
Known for his dreamy, otherworldly style and highly detailed, large-scale portraits, El Mac paints only at night and puts his spray cans on ice—giving them a cloudy and diffused texture. To help achieve this atmospheric look, Mural Arts bought out nearly all the spray paint in the city, according to Kolker. (The paint also went toward Construction of Style, another graffiti art project on the same site.)
A longtime fan of El Mac’s work, Mural Arts Founder Jane Golden had hoped to commission a mural from the artist ever since discovering his work at an exhibition in Harlem. When the opportunity arose this spring, the team sprung into action, securing a partially destructed wall in an empty lot at North Second and Callowhill Streets with support from National Real Estate Development (NRED).
Many of Mural Arts’ projects take years to develop, with community groups and neighbors giving input on everything from the design process to wall location. But with El Mac’s busy schedule of international projects, the Mural Arts team had to work fast.
Within one month, El Mac had flown into Philly, photographed a subject, finalized the mural design, and painted the final wall with spray. Keith Garcia contributed the background, while expert muralist Diana Gonzales assisted throughout the process.
For the mural’s subject, El Mac chose to portray Mural Arts’ Advanced Art Education student Cookie Trippett as an homage to the art and labor of mural-making.
When the two artists met for a photoshoot this June, Trippett said El Mac shared stickers and words of encouragement: “I felt really honored to be able to hear about his process and style and take home a piece of his artwork as a little tribute.”
A muralist herself, Trippett learned the process of mural-making through Mural Arts’ Summer Internship and has contributed to several public art projects in the city, including No Place Like Home (2026) in Fishtown. She said she hopes to design an entire mural in her own style one day, after learning from artists like David McShane and Matthew “Henbo” Henning.
“It’s a very fun medium. It’s the scale of it for me,” Trippett said. “I’ve always loved murals because of the scale and the impact they have on different communities… I just feel like I belong there.”
Below, listen to a candid conversation between Advanced Art Education student Cookie Tripett and Mural Arts Founder Jane Golden, reflecting on Golden’s career, Mural Arts’ legacy in art education, and the future of mural-making in Philadelphia.