Photographs by Dick Evans
“The man in the middle is on a journey that is very difficult and emotional, which is why he has his eyes closed, deep in thought. He’s leaving his home, culture, family, and everything that he is familiar with, which is portrayed on the right side of the mural. His home country has beauty as well as problems, which is why I painted families, bright cultures, and tropical scenery, but also a street kid, protesters, and low-paid factory workers bent over their work. The woman, who is his girlfriend or wife, is staying behind, which is very painful for both of them. This situation is very common for many friends and room-mates of mine who are from El Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Iraq and other countries. The man is coming to the large American city, which also has its positive and negative aspects. He finds it cold (both the weather and the culture), overly-organized and technical, and many people are zoned into materialism and a spiritually-empty media (which explains the zombie-TVs and the bug-eyed people). Some people make money off of all this, but they, too, are victims (which is why they’re portrayed as being bug-eyed as well, and zoned into their money). On the positive side, there are families having fun together and a relatively high standard of living.”
Source: Joel Bergner, featured in CITY