Mexico City may have Diego Rivera, but Wallabout has Puerto Rican folk muralist Evelyn Talarico. Talarico, the 64-year-old untrained seamstress who started painting to deal with the grief caused by her mother’s death, has been transforming walls in the neighborhood into a panorama of tropical waterfalls, Caribbean sunsets, foliage and signature palm trees — all painted from her childhood memories of Puerto Rico. “Evelyn has turned a nondescript thoroughfare near the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and the Navy Yard into a unique and visually pleasing neighborhood attraction,” said L.B. Brown, the owner of Simply Art & Framing Gallery, who will lead tours of Talarico’s work every Sunday in June.
Brown told the New York Post that the country scenes is also a stark contrast to the other murals in the neighborhood, which are characterized by a grittier urban feel — which makes sense, given that Talarico said she is inspired by her childhood. “Puerto Rican people keep thanking me because my work reminds them of Puerto Rico and religious people bless me because they say I am painting a new world where everything is calm,” said Talarico. When she first started painting, Talarico only worked on canvases, but always desired to do larger work — and her big break came when a health-care clinic commissioned her to do something bright for the children.
That 2008 mural drew the notice of other merchants and building owners who commissioned more work — usually for the cost of paint. Talarico is currently working on her ninth mural in an area bordered by Carlton, Vanderbilt, Myrtle and Flushing avenues.
A seamstress who did everything from baby-sitting to managing a building to make ends meet, Talarico had no formal art training and had never tried to paint before. Suddenly, after her mother’s death, canvas after canvas came to life under her hands.
The mother of two daughters has since painted 10 murals of various sizes in her neighborhood, many of them in Wallabout, a small section between Clinton and Flushing Aves. “The proof that people like Evelyn’s work is that no one has vandalized any of her murals,” said Brown. Talarico also painted a wall of the Smiling Faces Christian Day Care Center at the corner of Clermont and Dekalb Aves. in Fort Greene.
Talarico sees it as her legacy to the neighborhood. “I love my neighborhood,” she said. “I walk these streets so much, I sometimes say if I sent my shoes by themselves they would walk the streets by themselves. I want people to remember me when I am gone.”
Brown, her booster, is offering guided or unguided tours of Talarico’s work. Call (718) 624-5041 for more information. Talarico’s canvases are also on display at the Creole Restaurant & Supper Club, 2167 Third Ave., in Manhattan.
You can find articles on Talarico at http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/05/07/2010-05-07_brooklyn_seamstress_evelyn_talarico_finds_new_career_painting_murals_to_purge_gr.html#ixzz0p0Grsqao
