Jersey City, NJ
Greetings from Jersey City! We got a prime mural location just outside the Holland Tunnel. We painted the Jersey City mural in March of 2015. Because it was still cold out, we struggled to stay warm for this one. Our good friend Tom Gould joined to shoot a video about our project that you can check out at the bottom of this post. Thanks to Greg Edgell from Green Villain for organizing, priming and going way beyond to make this project happen.
This was the first mural to go up at this location. Not even one year later, it became a street art landmark and other murals have covered the building. Congrats to Green Villain for making this a rotating mural destination with street artists from all over the world.
After removing some old signage remnants and priming the wall, we got to work. We decided to keep the design in the scale of a true postcard and not cover the entire space since it was a square block. In addition, there was a little ledge that blocked the bottom portion of the mural. Furthermore, cars would park at the bottom during the day, so we wanted to make sure the entire piece was always visible.
Lisa shot an inadvertent Dickies ad as Victor sat on the ledge looking at the wall canvas. Little did we know how many years he would be wearing this paint suit! It will definitely be displayed in a show or museum one day. The mural location was next to a very busy gas station. We would get a lot of people stopping by for photos after getting gas. Growing up in NY, we learn to always fill up cheaper gas in New Jersey before crossing back into New York through the Holland tunnel.
Technically, this was our first mural of the Greetings Tour project outside the state of New York. We painted the Jersey City mural right before we picked up our RV and hit the road.
The content for the Greetings from Jersey City mural was recommended by long time locals like Greg Edgell. We really try to collaborate with local artists with our postcard murals but this one was done with a pretty tight timeline. Instead of giving a letter to a local artist as a blank canvas, we decided to pay tribute to a local NJ graffiti artist, KAWS. Growing up, Victor remembered seeing his graffiti as I would get into Jersey from New York on road trips. He’s now a household name in the art world, but we wanted to pay tribute to his street art and graffiti roots. Therefore, we replicated a classic top to bottom KAWS freight train piece. *Update: In 2019, we felt a bit strange about leaving an unauthorized tribute to a fellow artist in the now extremely popular mural. We decided to replace the imagery with an image of the Bergen Arches which was a popular graffiti destination in Jersey City.
This Jersey City street art or mural was one of the first official pieces that we painted where we signed it with our Greetings Tour name. At the time, we called it the “Greetings From Tour” but later shortened it to just “Greetings Tour” which made more sense.
This was a really fun project, and we were happy to work with the Jersey City community to create this mural that serves as a symbol of hometown pride for locals. In addition, it’s been great to see all the creative photos that people create using our artwork as backdrops. If you are in the area, stop by and send your friends and family a digital postcard posing with the Greetings from Jersey City mural.
“For years my organization Green Villain had been trying to line up access to the highest impact mural opportunity across the entire eastern seaboard. #GVM019, the 19th site in our mural program, is positioned between the inbound and outbound ramps for the Holland Tunnel. In 2019 alone 122,227,676 vehicles passed this site traversing the tunnel.
In 2014 Greetings Tour christened the first of thirty-four panels. I had one of those “ah-ha” moments where I was reminded about the value of public art and the depth it has in a city—over time it creates a personality of its own. This project, like every Greetings Tour project, has become the defacto branding of the city it exists in. Only if our mayor knew to actually hire talent to help brand our city in 2013!
The nostalgia of the mid-century post card, the modern day twist with the letter designs, the perfect Instagram photo allowing everyone to take that memory home with them—it’s what we call place making and it’s what our nation needs now more than ever.
I can speak on behalf of my entire city and all the millions of people that have experienced it, thank you Victor and Lisa for the selfless work you have done and the inspiring brand you have built on being a proud American. ”
JERSEY CITY MURAL ART PRINT
Official museum quality prints are now available in our online shop. Thank you for your support!
Press:
Chicpea JC - Greetings from Jersey City
Letter Guide:
J - Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal
E - Holland Tunnel
R - The PATH Train
S - Filipino / Indian flags
E - Loew’s Theater
Y - Jersey City Downtown Skyline
C - Colgate Clock
I - Statue of Liberty
T - Liberty Science Center
Y - KAWS Tribute (Later Replaced with Bergen Arches)
Year: 2015
Mural Size: 13'H x 20'W
Location: 200 12th St, Jersey City, NJ 07310