Massive mural completed at Greensburg Shop 'n Save
Jul. 30—If any regular customers of the Greensburg Shop 'n Save on East Pittsburgh Street haven't stopped by this past week, their next visit is likely to be a whole lot more colorful.
About 4,600 square feet more colorful, to be exact.
"I've been wanting to do it for about a decade now, and I just ran into Daisher (Rocket) at the store," store owner Tom Charley said. "We started talking about it and got it going."
Rocket, 45, an artist from Greensburg, finished nearly two months of work on the mural Wednesday.
"I moved to Greensburg to start college at Seton Hill, and I've always really loved the community," said Rocket, who goes by "Rev. Daisher Rocket," a kind of "cult-of-personality" persona he started as a joke.
"It was more of a way to build a character and brand," he said. "But with the murals, I've always thought that if you can inspire your community, they'll want to keep replicating that feeling. A lot of my public artwork is making something beautiful — not necessarily representative of anything, but just something to make people feel good."
The Shop 'n Save mural, which is the largest Rocket has painted, certainly reflects that philosophy, layering squares and small dots of color that look rather abstract up close, but quickly evoke flowers and leafy tropical plants from a distance.
That is occasionally broken up by things such as a delivery truck with "Charley Bros." emblazoned on the side, as well as a stylized version of the orange sculpture on display outside the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
"It was created by Josefa Filkosky, one of my first art professors at Seton Hill," Rocket said. "The mural was designed with input and ideas from the Charley family. The flowers add movement and a lot of color. People can recognize and connect easily with them. Then we decided on celebrating different landmarks in Greensburg."
After pressure washing his canvas in early June, Rocket said, it took less than two months to complete the mural.
"My assistant, Connor Walters, from Greensburg, was also very helpful," he said.
After graduating from Seton Hill in 2001, Rocket has pursued art full time. He has a studio on Clay Avenue in Jeannette.
"I try to work in sort of the old-school Renaissance way of creating art through a patronage system," he said.
And he's got his eyes on a few other walls around town, if he's able to find a few more patrons and willing property owners.
"There are eight or nine buildings around Greensburg that I'd love to do," he said. "The Shop 'n Save has always been on that list. It's a great wall and a great space. Everyone sees it."
He won't have to wait long for a new project. Charley wants another Rocket mural at the Shop 'n Save on Route 66 in Hempfield.
"We have some small things we need to do on the outside of the building, but we're 100% going to put on there as well," Charley said. "We love what he did with the first one. This second will be different, but it'll still be his artwork."
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
