Studio 52 is a community artist space located in the heart of Allston, and is proud to support the Boston music scene and local artist community.
For Tom Petty fans, “The Waiting” on Lansdowne Street is over.
Following the rock icon’s death in October, the fifth House of Blues memorial mural has cropped up outside the live music venue, this time honoring Petty and taking the place of the prior tribute to the late John Warren Geils Jr., guitarist and co-founder of J. Geils Band. One of the three in-house painters for the club, Meghan Pierce, posted a photo of the mural to Instagram on December 23, saying it was finally completed and on display.
Pierce works on the memorial murals and other folk art for the House of Blues with fellow artists Hannah Earley and Molly Kafka.
Together, the ladies paint the outdoor memorials on fake brick paneling and later screw the panels into the actual brick wall outside when the mural is completed, replacing whichever icon’s likeness previously graced the wall. Once removed, the crew relocates the older murals to the backstage area. Back when Vanyaland interviewed the team of HOB artists this summer, the older depictions of David Bowie, Prince, and Sharon Jones were stashed in the load-in area on the first floor.
With any luck, 2018 will be a little kinder to music’s living legends, and Petty won’t join the other backstage panels for a while.
Check out some of the teams’ past work here.