Summer 2017 EditionAlumni & Friends Magazine
Greetings tour
Lisa Beggs, BSVC ’11, and her boyfriend, mural artist Victor Ving, are living indefinitely out of an RV as they travel cross-country for “Greetings Tour” – a project that yields painted murals based on the “Greetings from” postcards, popular around the middle of the century. An excerpted interview in February with Beggs about the stories behind select murals follows.
By Mary Reed, BSJ ’90, MA ’93 | May 23, 2017
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“Chicago” mural in Chicago, Illinois. We were sleeping right there and it was awful. Because of train noise, we got no sleep. We were still excited to be painting there! Chicago ended up being our biggest mural so far — the most popular. When we painted there, as you can see, no other murals were around it. But now the place is covered with other murals. It’s become a destination. It’s pretty crazy. We still can’t believe that.
“Coney Island” mural at Coney Island, New York. The Coney Island mural was a little different. Individuals would come up to us and say the craziest things about New York. The man pictured was a random person at first. But the local artist we painted with knew him. I think he rode the Cyclone a crazy amount of times and that’s what he was known for. We were painting the Cyclone and he had a tattoo and it really fit.
“San Diego” mural in San Diego, California. This one was not initially funded, but we ended up getting funded by the city. City officials had seen it, and they liked our project. It was a small amount of funding, but it meant a lot because [it meant] they wanted to get involved. I was a dance minor at OU. One of my old classmates (Susan Holzapfel, BSJ ’12, far left) was in the San Diego Ballet. I reached out to her and she came with her dancers. We had a little celebratory party when we were done, and they danced for us.
“Cleveland” mural in Cleveland, Ohio. Beggs, right, with a local fan. We loved Cleveland; it was pretty awesome. This was one of the murals planned out in advance. The nonprofit that helped us get the wall is called Graffiti HeArt. I’m from Canton, so it felt like home. I went to Cleveland all the time growing up. I knew everything going inside the mural block letters. Everyone came to visit. They had a wall for us, we got paid for it, the mayor came out and he gave us pins to the city. It was just wonderful. Photos courtesy of Lisa Beggs BSVC ’11.
