Heads to the Sky

Heads to the Sky by artist Cavin Jones is located in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mural depicts children’s faces looking up into the vast blue of the sky that lives above all of us, symbolizing the possibilities that this mural wants to inspire in local youth. A light blue background filled with clouds, a series of words listing possible career paths, and a row of Black teen faces looking up come together to suggest a future of limitless possibility. In this mural, Jones turns the negative connotation of “a head in the clouds” into something positive. It is only by looking up and keeping one’s eyes open to the sky that allows one to see the possibilities of paths before them.

To create this piece, the artist drew the basic outlines of the children’s faces, broke them down into simplified color areas, then invited local students to fill them in with paint.