Pash Lima, a muralist, stands in front of his latest work.
Castleberry Hill often plays host to amazing artwork and lively scenes. Recently, artist Pash Lima was commissioned to complete an outdoor mural on the side of a building on Peters Street, titled “The Light In Darkness.” Lima is an emerging Native American painter and tattoo artist born in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised in Atlanta. His mural for the Cultivating Cultures project, which incorporates themes of Native American and female empowerment, was finished in April 2018 by Lima with help from his family and friends.
“As African-Americans, we think it is important that African-American landowners and business owners do not get erased in the telling of development stories…especially in Atlanta,” says Alison Cross, co-owner of the building that features the mural. “All of our building tenants are African-American business owners within a community that probably has the largest concentration of African-American small business owners in Atlanta. I specifically searched out Pash because of his vibrant paintings depicting strong African-American women and wanted that presence to take hold in the community while paying homage to our Native American brothers and sisters who were here long before we came along.”
Here’s a week-long chronicle of how his mural came to be — the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens.
Easter Sunday: Day One
12:30 pm
The large orange-and-gray mechanical lift has been rented, a constant figure as it’s driven back and forth in front of the old brick wall of what used to be the Dream Cafe. The building at the corner of Peters Street Southwest and Fair Street sits in transition, mostly empty. It’s owned by siblings Alison and Alphonzo Cross and was built in 1910.
1:01pm
While outlining his projection on the wall, Pash promptly paints a black hand print over his mouth and cheeks in honor of his Cherokee heritage.
1:30pm
Usually the Castlehill Backlot Walking Tour group would be combing the neighborhood to show off unknown movie sets to tourists. Instead, most of Nelson Street and the areas towards the stadium are dormant, save for a man walking a husky black dog. Further down Peters Street, a church service lets out.
5:00pm
Scores of people dressed in their nightclub finest drift in and out of the parking lot adjacent to the mural on their way to Spin or 255 Tapas Lounge just around the corner. Some stop to admire the work in progress on the mural.
9:40pm
Pash and his assistant/friend Alex Cruz scarf down Mexican food from Castleberry Hill eatery No Mas! Cantina. Pash figures that paint on your face and food don’t make a great mix and goes to wash some of it off.
11:00pm
While wrapping foil over the lights on the side of the building to make it darker for the projector, one begins to sizzle and unexpectedly blows out. The parking lot, the wall, the spectators are all left in the shade of night where the street lights can’t quite reach.
Monday: Day Two
12:10 am
The projector and laptop aren’t charged. Work comes to a brief halt as Pash’s mom dashes back to his home to retrieve it.
11:30 am
The stunning profile of a girl’s face on the far left side of the wall takes shape. She is wearing a tribal headband with her large afro out and one braid hanging down. The base layers of dark blue and black, making up the night sky and ocean, are being added. The century-old brick underneath established paint is porous and thick. It takes several passes before the colors fully seep into the stone.
Tuesday: Day Three
7:14am
People idle in cars stuck in traffic after a crash blocks multiple lanes on I-75.
4:00pm
Stars, clouds, and leaves are added to the brick sky. The woman’s brown skin is illuminated by her golden eyes. A steady stream of beers and friends are brought to the wall to see the artists’ progress.
6:00pm
The gray lot of Turner Field’s (now known as the Georgia State Stadium) lights up with vivacity as the annual fair kicks up full blast. Fairgoers pour in. It’s a basic cotton candy and Ferris Wheel ordeal, but it continues to draw sizable crowds.
7:32pm
Pash and Alex paint the goddess’s hand descending from the heavens to suspend a door that’s wrapped around her fingers. At the request of the building owners, the circle around the door is intended to be covered in the Latin phrase “Et lux in tenebris lucet,” which roughly translates in English to “And the light shines in darkness.”
The whole phrase, “et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non conprehenderunt,” means, “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not,” referring to a passage in the Bible from the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, Verse 5.
The shortened phrase has wormed its way into pop culture. It can be seen as a popular tattoo selection, in video games, literature, and quoted by just about any celebrity from Shakespeare to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wednesday: Day Four
6:38pm
A friend brings Waffle House for breakfast, evidenced by the coffee cups still lingering on the tarp and tables. High school friends, other tattoo artists, and even Pash’s daughter, mother and brother, visit for most of the day.
His daughter happily draws chalk figures and shapes on the far side of the right wall not currently being worked on and all over the sectioned-off parking lot.
8:01pm
A weekly soccer game in Central Park begins.
9:04pm
The temperature drops from a comfortable chill to downright cold for a supposed spring night. Everyone at the wall bundles up in the coming darkness, lit by the singular spotlight that has been brought in to replace the blown overhead lights.
Thursday: Day Five
4:50pm
A fight breaks out in the parking lot between two women dressed in heels, dresses, and full faces of makeup over a birthday incident that apparently went unrectified.
Friday: Day Six
1:00am
The Spinning Pie closes for the night as the DJ plays his last song. The cop outside the glass door waits, bopping his head to the music, as the packed place eventually becomes empty.
1:40am
Pash calls it quits for the night and decides to pack it in, lest he accidentally fall asleep at the wall. He intends to return bright and early in the morning at 9am.
10:40am
Pash is still asleep on his friend’s couch.
12:00pm
After a late but determined start, the first drizzles of rain start to fall on the parking lot. The artists clamor to innovatively cover the work with the tarp off the ground by hanging it from the roof.
Saturday: Day Seven
7:00pm
The dark and lovely purple coils of the woman’s hair blending into clouds are painted into existence. “I’m glad I got to watch an artist from start to finish execute such an amazing, captivating mural,” said fellow artist Megan Hylton about the completed art piece.
Final mural by Pash Lima
All photos by photojournalist Ariama Long
