Community Murals
"This is called community building. Mural art reinforces creativity and serves as a wonderful, joyous celebration of who we are as a people."
Former San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris
In 1985, Phil created Cartoonists Across America & The World to use art and humor to call attention to the global literacy crisis and also to the solutions that the arts can bring to many social and environmental problems.
We have been promoting literacy, creativity and the arts all over the world for the last 37 years. Our group has painted more than 2000 murals on everything from canvas and foam core (portable murals that can hang anywhere after the events) to walls and city buses and even huge trucks. Most of our colorful cartoon murals feature the slogan, “Building a World of Readers, Artists and Dreamers” and many feature our colorful “Read. Avoid Extinction” dinosaurs, as well as characters from hundreds of guest artists who have painted with us.
We try to combine our events with interviews with the local media on the subjects of creativity and literacy and how art and reading can change anyone's life. It's hard to film literacy but when you are making a mural, you give a visual to the issue and to the solutions that we offer.
We include the host site and other sponsor’s logos on the actual finished mural as well as in all media releases. The mural can be a scene of your area if you wish and have a theme of your choice.
Some of Phil’s themes have been “Read. Avoid Extinction”; “Building a World of Readers, Artists, and Dreamers”; or “Read. Rock. And Recycle”.
Mural events include copies of Phil’s educational comics to give away at the event. All our books are family-friendly and are suitable for all ages.
We went to Germany to do a mural with the public at Kamp-Promenade Mall in Osnabrück
Simpson's artist Phil Ortiz was there and also Klaus Leven of East Side Cartoons and the German office of Cartoonists Across America & the World.