Our Community Remembers

  • The text reads: “Our community remembers. They lived, they loved, and they are missed.”
  • Before detail shading can occur, the first step in painting is applying a flat color.
  • Sketching out the mural, using tape as guidelines.
  • New York State Assemblyman Michael DenDekker addresses community members during the dedication
  • Firefighters, police, bike club members, family, friends, neighbors, young, and old: the whole community came to remember.
  • Many voices were heard on this bright and shining Saturday.

Project Description

This memorial mural was painted to honor the lives of three members of the East Elmhurst community who died in the World Trade Center attacks: Marcello Matricciano, Edward Joseph Lehman, and James Marcel Cartier. The mural focuses on representing existing imagery and monuments made to acknowledge the historical event. In addition to the imagery representing the event itself, we chose to use portraits of each of the three remembered and accompany those portraits with symbols related to something unique to each individual. These images where recommended by the family members themselves and included a cyclist, Curious George (based on the Cartier’s love of the cartoon character), and images relating to a local baseball team.
 
The East Elmhurst community wanted the mural to not only remember their friends and family, but all the events of 9/11. To capture this spirit, the mural design includes the shape of the Pentagon, four stars to symbolize the four planes involved in the attack, the original World Trade Center towers. Jutting out from between these images is the Freedom Tower, signaling a hopeful future. 

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Project Info

Fun Facts

Fun Fact
The community held a fundraiser at a local school to help raise the funds for this mural.
Legend
In a corner, the Survivor Tree – a tree that survived the 9/11 attacks – blossoms as a symbol of resiliency.
Research
The Survivor Tree is a callery pear tree.