Our Tacony: Yesterday and Tomorrow

Our Tacony: Yesterday and Tomorrow is a celebration of the past, present, and future of Tacony as described by the people who know and love it most. The design process for this collaboratively conceived neighborhood-scape began in the Tacony Library and Arts Building, where library patrons ranging in age from two to seventy-two wrote their favorite details of Tacony on post-it notes: ice cream truck, hoagies, grindstones, Vogt pool. The responses ranged in theme from Tacony’s iconic 19th century architecture to delicious locally produced foods to favorite parks and playgrounds for family-friendly fun. The process continued through weeks of conversations with community members and through the guidance of the Historical Society of Tacony, who shared their archives and their knowledge with the artist, Mariel Capanna.

The mural was created using buon fresco or earth pigment painted into wet plaster. The fresco plaster is a mixture of sand (that has been sifted, washed and dried) and slaked (read: hydrated) lime. The paints are natural earth pigments stored and suspended in distilled water. “Lime water” (from the buckets of slaked lime) was used as the vehicle for the paint. Pigment bonds with the lime in the plaster to become a crystallized part of the plaster wall’s surface.