Philadelphia's Magic Garden

Mothers Day is the official kick-off to, what we call around here, Celebration Week. In addition to Mothers Day, in the span of a few days, we celebrate our wedding anniversary, our daughter's birthday, and now her girlfriends' birthday, and our exchange son's birthday (though with him back home in Belgium, it isn't celebrated as much). It is a week of making sure each day is special, and that each celebrant feels loved.

For Mothers' Day we went to South Street to visit Philadelphia's Magic Gardens (PMG), created by Isaiah Zagar. 

The spark for the trip came when I saw pictures from a friend's visit. Her pictures made the place look, well, magical. I was intrigued. I knew I could pull the "Mothers Day Card" to get Don and Ashley to go with me. The weather was lovely, one of the first nice days we have had this year, which made a trip into Philadelphia even more appealing.

I'll admit I did almost no research before going. I did go online and figure out what was involved with going -- a habit I picked up during the pandemic when rules would change quickly, and the safest route was to visit their website or FaceBook page to see the last details -- hours open, mask policies, how to procure tickets, ticket prices, are there timed tickets or can you show up at any point on the day, and any new special rules, whereas pre-COVID I would have only worried about the address and regular hours. 

The website told us we needed to buy timed tickets in advance. As we showed up exactly at our 3:30 PM start time, we saw others being turned away for not buying tickets in advance. It is not always easy getting the timing just right, I'm glad we did.

We easily found street parking a few blocks away from the gardens. During our stroll down South Street we identified other mosaics.

We had similar pottery growing up

Before we even entered the grounds we felt as if we had participated in feast for the eyes.

At this point I still didn't know these were influenced by one person: Isaiah Zagar.

Isaiah and Julia Zagar moved to the South Street neighborhood in the late 1960s. He started to put tiles on buildings in an effort to beautify his neighborhood. Other artists joined them.

In 1991 he started to mosaic the empty lot next to his art studio using a combinations of tiles he fired in his kiln and found objects. The Boston-based owner discovered what he was doing in 2004 and wanted it all removed so they could sell the property. The neighborhood stepped in and formed Philadelphia Magic Gardens so his work would be saved. He then built tunnels and grottos and added even more magic to the site. In 2008 it was opened to the public. 

We were fortunate our visit coincided with a free tour of the basement -- the place where Isaiah worked before he moved out of the building. Our guide helped me to understand and appreciate his work.

I learned other than creating an outline around a face or body, he did not pre-decide where mosaics would go. There is a randomness to his art. He covered every part of his studio with tiles, except for the front part of the basement floor. 

Perhaps most importantly, I learned a structural engineer comes out every so ofte to make sure the place is safe for the public to visit.

His work contains some common themes.

Julia appears often, both her name and as a maternal figure.

Isaiah appears, too, often with multiple right arms, perhaps because he wishes he had more arms in order to place the tiles before the cement dried.

Anything can be turned into art.

Faces are everywhere, as are bodies.

The PGM had two scavenger hunts you could participate in -- an indoor one and an outdoor one. As tricky as they were (before going insane, we shared what we found with others and they did the same to us), it was important to use the right sheet.

We learned about efforts to preserve his art. A week before our visit, PMG staff learned one of his mosaics was about to be demolished. They quickly rushed out and tried to salvage some of the bigger pieces, especially faces, knowing they could not save it all. Local fans sat in folding chairs to protect it while they artists arrived. Isaiah was among those standing guard.

Another famous mosaic, The Painted Bride, located on the Chocolate Factory about a mile away from South Street is also in jeopardy of being demolished in order that an apartment building could go up in its place. A design was created that would include both the art and the new structure, but several loud objections were heard. We walked to the site only to see it is mostly covered in black fabric.

It is obvious many hours went into creating the facade.

Isaiah and Julia still live in the neighborhood. There house is just as covered as the PMG.

I had many thoughts that day. The strongest emotions were how much Honey Bunny would have enjoyed visiting the Philadelphia Magic Gardens. Don's mom was interested in all forms of art. Many think of her as a water color artist, but I remember how enamored she became with graffiti, talking to the graffiti artists at Terracycle's Graffiti Jam. She also really appreciated mosaics. Don said he told her and Dad about South Street and he is pretty sure they visited, but PMG did not open to the public until 2008, long after Dad died, and Honey Bunny would not have traveled to Philadelphia on her own. Wish I had known about it sooner AND been able to encourage her to go.

Along with that thought was one I remember Honey Bunny saying about graffiti. To her it was beautiful. She simply could not understand why an owner would be upset if a street artist creating art on their building. I couldn't convince her that not everyone loves having their home / office / etc. changed without their permission. She would have loved it if someone created a mural on her home. 

While I admire Isaiah Zagar and his work, I would be upset if I came home from a trip and discovered my house was covered in a giant mosaic. I would worry about potential structural damage (walking around that day I had flashbacks to looking at a Colonial that was covered in tiles -- floors, walls, and ceilings, we left that house pretty quickly). It is not my style. 

A few stray thoughts from the day.

• The place was filled with families celebrating Mothers Day. I was one of the few with a teenager.
• We bumped into one of Ashley's professors from Muhlenberg and her family celebrating Mothers' Day. We then saw them at the random place Don and Ashley chose for lunch.
• We capped off the day with Jeni's ice cream because we are still excited this Bexley, Ohio chain is within an hourlong drive from home.

Thanks for a fun Mothers Day.