A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Philadelphia Mural Arts Project, and I can't seem to stop!  In late 2008 they teamed up with The Design Center at Philadelphia University to take the murals out into the streets, literally.  Ten recycling trucks were given the special treatment and were covered with graphics and design - all in an effort to publicize the new "single stream recycling program" - where all types of recyclables go into the same receptacle.  It seems to me that Philadelphia is leading the way in a lot of things - public art, innovative recycling, etc - I'm beginning to get a little jealous.









Of course, this project brought to mind the work of Mierle Ukeles, which I love. A major artist of the feminist movement, one large section of her work has dealt with the Sanitation Department of New York.  Considering herself a "maintenance artist", in a 1983 piece entitled "The Social Mirror" she covered a sanitation truck with a mirrored surface, essentially reflecting the viewer back onto themselves through the "eyes" of the "San Man":