Have you met Percy Fortini-Wright, the artist behind one of our murals from the #CSQinColor Mural Project? His mural can be found on Mass Ave. above Seven Stars. Learn more about Percy and his Central Square mural!

“My grandma was an amazing water colorist and painted glass-like scenes of boats. I do a lot of drawn out headlights that are very reminiscent of her work. She was a big influence on my decision to become an artist. My mom’s best friend’s son was also like the brother I never had, and he got me into graffiti at the age of 14. I was always very inspired by hip hop culture and graffiti tagging. All of those factors together have influenced my work over the years.

I received my MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, right here in Cambridge. Cambridge is fond to me. I always hang out and party there, and have some of my favorite spots that my mom and I would go to. We would go to discos on certain nights, and a lot of my nightscapes embody a little aspect of that.

A lot of my work combines the worlds of classical painting and graffiti to create landscapes and street scenes — night scenes in particular, like my mural in Central. My nightscapes represent an idea that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. They give you a feeling of not being alone. The mural that I painted in Central Square depicts the preceding block that you are about to enter into. It represents the idea that you see the street as the observer when you look at my mural, and then you enter into the street physically. You’re entering a future scene through the mural itself.

Since I went to school in Cambridge, it was great to have the opportunity to do one of my night scenes on a larger-scale outside in a place that is dear to me like Central Square. My mural is an idea of a visual image that people can relate to. It puts them in the driver’s seat to the point where you’re the observer entering the scene. I find that intimate and philosophical.

It’s amazing to see Central Square doing the Mural Project and getting artists involved in transforming the city. Central is a hip spot, so these murals definitely fit the culture. Mural projects are starting to pop up outside of Boston, but it’s a beautiful thing to see that trajectory taking shape in Cambridge.”

— Percy Fortini-Wright

Follow Percy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/percyfortiniwright/

Learn more about Percy’s work: http://percyfortiniwright.com/