GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Raphael Pantalone scrawled his first mural on the wall of his father’s Greensburg funeral home, much to his mother’s displeasure.
“I grabbed some crayons, and I was scribbling trains all over the walls,” he said. “I ended up taking over the whole wall.”
He was a child at the time, but in the years that followed, he spread his art to all seven continents and more than 100 countries.
He is responsible for some of Westmoreland County’s most notable public artworks, including the large mural of Nathanael Greene that adorns South Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg.
Pantalone painted the mural about 18 years ago, when he moved back to his hometown to teach art in the Greensburg Salem School District after working in Baltimore.
“I figured since they were nice enough to hire me, I would donate a mural to the city of Greensburg,” he said.
The mural was painted in honor of the city’s 200th anniversary, said city planning director Barbara Ciampini.
“We knew that he would dedicate the time to review Greensburg’s history, and really show us something that we could be proud of for many years after, and of course we have been,” she said.
“He just has that very eclectic, creative mind,” she added.
Now Pantalone teaches his students to develop and share their own works.
Lately, he has worked with students to produce murals for the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Museum.
“The great part about teaching is that I can pass along my experiences and abilities to little kids, but it also allowed me to work on my murals on the side, during the summertime and on the weekends,” he said.
Pantalone, son of Clement and VaLeria Pantalone, graduated from Greensburg Central Catholic High School. He then attended Waynesburg University on a football scholarship before getting a teaching job in Norfolk, Va., in 1984.
He later got a job teaching art in Baltimore, where he was chosen as one of the community members who would carry the 1996 Olympic torch.
He met his wife, Kathleen Pantalone, soon after returning to Greensburg. She was working at Eat’n Park one night when a group of colorful visitors came in.
“He came into the restaurant with a bunch of guys, with all these things drawn around their arms, around their necks, all over,” she said. The men were covered with Sharpie tattoos of snakes, barbed wire, and cartoon animals. She recognized the art style. Pantalone was a regular.
“There was this guy who had drawn this cartoon that was hanging in the kitchen for, like, half the summer,” she said. The cartoon was of a dolphin wearing a pair of swim trunks.
The pair struck up a conversation, and eventually they fell in love.
His knack for Sharpie tattoos has not dissipated, said Kathleen, who is now event director for St. Vincent College.
“One time, we went to a Harry Potter movie, and he was giving kids lightning bolts on their foreheads,” she said.
The couple has traveled all over the world. Everywhere they go, Raphael tries to share his art with the people he meets.
“It’s kind of interesting, people’s reactions to him, because there’s a lot of cultural differences in the places we go,” Kathleen said.
When the language barrier gets in the way, Raphael just rapidly sketches a drawing to get his point across without words.
He has even visited Antarctica, he said, painting a quick mural of some penguins on the wall of an Argentinean research station.
“I consider myself just enjoying life, traveling around, and meeting people, and it seems like art is just another way of getting in and interacting with people more,” he said.
He said he knows his artworks are temporary. Murals are painted over, damaged by weather, and worn by age.
“Murals, even the ones that are done by the masters, don’t last forever,” he said.”
This thought encourages him, he said. He said he wants to create his art in the moment, not obsess over an unending work.
“I was given the ability to be able to make artwork, and I want to share it with as many people as possible,” he said.
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Information from: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, https://pghtrib.com
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