I know a good question when I see it.
So when commenter Nancy C. let loose with, “Mark, who’s the artist” during the strong string of thoughts at the tail end of my Tuesday post about the colorful mural that adorns one whole wall of a diner we’re blessed with here in Syracuse, N.Y., I said to myself, that’s a good question. And I told Nancy C. I would find out.
Which brings us to today’s update.
The Market Diner, from its own web site.
My search first took me to the Market Diner’s own site, a fairly attractive place as these places go. It included that photo, which I screen-captured above. Nice, wouldn’t you say?
The About Us tab took me to a story written for Central New York publication Table Hoppin written by Alisha Tondro. It mentions the mural, and states that the joint is run by Elaine and Tony Imbesi, and before that, was owned by Elaine’s father Peter Marinos, since 1974. It did not, however, mention who painted the mural.
My next click took me to a piece written by my good friend and former colleague Bob Niedt for the big daily in 2006. On syracuse.com, his Storefront column read: “I like this place on Park Street, at the Regional Market. I like it even better now with the cool mural going on the north wall. It’s by Cicero artist Anthony P. Clubine. It starts with a continuation of the windowscape on the Park Street side of the diner and it’s a colorful and animated portal onto the north vista. In the distance is the rail line, with a New York Central train heading west. It’s the 1950s in this diner and some folks you’re dining with are famous stars.”
Jimmy, Buddy and MB.
Bob nailed the description of the mural painted by Cicero artist Anthony P. Clubine, did he not? My pal never saw me attempting to chat with the stars. Bob walked out of the downtown Syracuse newspaper building in the same 2013 layoff I did, and now works for the Business Journal in Washington, D.C.
What’s the most interesting mural you’ve seen painted inside a building? On the outside of a building? What would you paint on a mural scene if you were suddenly blessed with artist’s talent?
Mark Bialczak 
fun to see so many people talking about murals 🙂
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About great work, Anthony. 🙂
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I’ll never stop LOVING seeing my name in print! Great reference to my article. And, as much as I wished that I could have included the information about the mural, the paper wanted more of the personal view of the owner and diner, not just the wonderful and fun details of the building. Thanks for linking my article in this blog entry. I will return the favor linking your blog into mine.
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Thank you for returning the favor, Alisha. I am grateful. And thank you for dropping in and commenting. I always understand about following editor’s directives.
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God, I love diners. How can you not? The mural reminds me of ‘Nighthawks’ by Edward Hopper.
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You have the eye for art, Mark. Now the string will have to check out Mr. Hopper’s work. Thank you.
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That’s an amazing mural! And why aren’t there any super cool diners like that where I live? Hmm, perhaps because in England we don’t really have diners as such! If I developed an artistic ability over night, then I would paint my whole town in murals! It would make the place look so much better!
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You all need diners for your bangers and such! Traditional English breakfasts? Did I get that right, Amanda or say something wicked? 😉 I would like to see you painting murals around your London town. That would make you happy, I think.
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Ah yes, those types of places are called ‘cafes’ over here! I wish we had the retro-feel American diners over here… With waiters/waitresses on rollerskates, right? That’s the way you Americans roll 😉
And yes, London can do with a splash of colour! *gets the paint brush out* 🎨
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Well, there are not so many rollerskating food service places outside of the movies, but there are still some, though I haven’t been to any, Amanda. 🙂
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Oh darn, there goes my whole perception of American dining. *Puts the roller-skates back in the attic*
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Well, I see you’re still holding up the floating Joyce DeWitt waitress. I think one of the coolest murals I’ve seen was of WWII planes at the restaurant of our local small business airport. Personally, I once painted a replica of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” on my double closet doors when I was a teenager. That’s the largest painting I’ve ever done, and it took six months to complete.
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I hope that still adorns that door, Rachel, if the house owners have a cool kid in that room. 🙂 We don’t need no education …
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Nope. When my birth mom moved in with my Grandma, she painted over it. 😦 I only got one (grainy film) photo. You can probably find it on my facebook.
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I will look for it, Rachel. Dang.
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Mark … Stop hamming it up. That waitress has been ready to take your order FOREVER. Or, at least from the time the mural was painted. Great detective work. 😉
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A little soft-boiled detective work, Judy. And I am a big ham. Can’t help it.
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great backstory!
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Thanks, Liz.
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i think that’s so cool that you tracked down the artist and his story. i always enjoy looking at murals, and taking time to nice the details. my fav mural was one that my friend’s son painted here in ann arbor. he was graffiti artist (on the wrong side of the law0 and the city hired him to create a legal piece of public art. win-win!
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From outlaw to in-law. No, wait, not quite. To within the law. That’s it! Great Ann Arbor mural story for your friend’s son, Beth. I like that.
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My brother paints major murals and yet, my favorites of his artwork are the simpler ones, like for someone’s basement wall with a cityscape of Columbus or the corners of basement walls where he depicts the scenery from mountains, cities, towns and countryside for train aficionados. My own five foot tall paintings of sunflowers and a cliff painted in our home’s office were in my old house, that got sold before it nearly got repossessed. In the closing of the house, as we were signing the final papers, the new owner said, “We will keep every room painted the way you did them, so feel free to come and visit them anytime.” This warmed my heart, but I have not been able to go back inside. I do drive by to see how the flowers and trees are doing…
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Your own mural painting story of the rooms of your former home is very bittersweet, my good friend Robin. I am in wonder of your many talents and sad about the way you jad to leave that art work behind.
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Bob did a great job of describing the painting and now we know the artist, but the ball wouldn’t have been started rolling in my mind, unless you, Mark, had visited the Diner! Yeah for all the connections you gave us, too!
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Thank you, Robin. The mural was begging for me to photograph. And join for a conversation, too. 🙂
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was it called that over there? or did they re brand it like they did with our Mad Max movies.?? on a tangent I watched an excellent movie on Monday called ‘The express’ it was about the footballer called Ernie Davis who won the Heinmann trophy.. Had never seen it before but worth the watch and it was set in your home town of Syracuse.
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It was called exactly the same title over here, Louise. Hey, I’m glad you got to see “The Express.” There was a big to-do when it was filmed because Ernie Davis is still a hero here in Syracuse. The university has named the football field in our stadium “Ernie Davis Legends Field.” I was the music and entertainment reporter for the daily newspaper when they were filming the movie and I got to write about the world premiere, held at our big downtown theatre, and cover it on the red carpet. Exciting. 🙂
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hell yeah! i would have been. I worked a corporate shindig for ‘Australia” boy what a snooze that was ( the movie) and even the people at the do were trying to be polite; it was funny to watch. The movie ‘unbroken’ was filmed here last year. i hope it is g8.
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I haven’t seen ‘Unbroken’ yet, but it sure has been popular here so far, Louise.
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If you get Russel Crowes new movie ‘The Water Diviner” go see it. it is really good. Probably apt due to this being the centenary of Gallipoli.
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I’ll look for it, Louise. Thanks.
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I, think – if memory works proper, there is a cowboy themed one on the side of a building in either Durango or Silverton colorado.
Of course the best known one in Australia is the Palace Hotel in Broken Hill ( Priscilla queen of the desert movie)….very similar to your diner.
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The famous one in the famous movie. Yes! Thank you for the reminder, Louise, from Australia. 🙂
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Thanks for the update, Mark. I wish I could say I’ve seen some murals that keep space in my memory, so I could share them here. Pretty sure when the time comes to see another I’ll easily think of your post.
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Now I’ve got you thinking more about the murals, Aud. Cool!
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There is a mural at Wild Willie’s burger joint in Watertown MA that is so adorably strange, that Michael, Aaron, and I LOVE it. It’s a cowboy on a horse with lots of cows ranging across a landscape; the mural artist breaks free of all conventional rules of perspective and anatomy. Michael, for years, has used one of the cows from that mural as his avatar/profile pic on Facebook. Thanks for the artistic and inspiring post, Mark.
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I have no beef about an unconventional cow mural in a burger joint, Ann. 🙂
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Nice to learn more about the mural, Mark. If I could paint anything on a mural it would be big, colorful M&Ms because those characters in the commercials are just so cute 🙂 Plus, I love chocolate, hehe!
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Of course you love chocolate, Christy. I mean, it’s chocolate!!
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Laughed out loud at my computer 🙂
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Awesome Mark, love knowing the history behind it. ❤
Diana xo
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Thanks, Diana. The history behind better completes the picture for us.
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Very cool! You blew my mind in an earlier comment when you said Buddy Holly and Joe Paterno would be the same age. I think of him as young because he died young. I still think of JFK as 46… and Princess Di as 36. The mind is funny that way.
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Time and age is like a slide ruler, Kate. I never could figure out how to work that exactly right in my mind, either.
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Murals are great! There are a ton of them in New London, the city I used to live in which is right next door to where I live now. Lots of stuff done by local artists, but there’s also a Wyland mural on the side of the comic book shop that has been there for ages.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM61GV_Whaling_Wall__New_London_CT
Okay, since 1993, but to me that’s ages.
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Yes, Cheney, that’s most of your life. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the Wyland mural from Connecticut, my friend.
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Thanks for all the Hype on the Market Mural I had fun painting it and Im glad so many enjoy it.
Thanks Anthony Clubine
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It’s become a great tradition in Syracuse, Anthony, a job so well done. Thank you for dropping by here to comment on my story about it.
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I could just live inside that mural. I was born in the wrong decade. I would twirl about in a pink poodle skirt and take orders and try to make James Dean like girls before he took off in that Spider and wrecked it.
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Kerbey, you would be a heart-stopper in that mural, I think.
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Oddly enough, the most arresting murals I’ve seen have been graffiti-based. And I’m not a fan of graffiti!
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If it’s big and sprawling and beautiful, then it’s art to me, too, Kay. 🙂
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Still thinking about this mural and trying to write something. Thanks for supplying the name of the artist. There’s not that much street art here in L.A. although maybe in other neighborhoods where there are more street artists. There is much more in NYC and San Francisco.
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I would think that in some areas of LA, there would be plenty of street art, Marissa. But would does this east coast guy know?
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Yes, me too. Just have to look for it. Like I said probably in areas where there are more street artists. Los Angeles is not as cultural in that way.
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am i just showing my age but i much prefer this type of building art compared to all that other ‘stuff’.. ….of course the best would have to be anything like the Sistine chapel or some of those beautiful mosques in the old ottoman empire regions. now that is art.
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Yeah, well, not too many Michealangelos around these days, Louse.
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The former depot for the city buses has been used for different street art projects. Not quite the same thing but I find all of that pretty fascinating.
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Yes, I agree it’s a really good, Sheena. Let our artists loose in the city to do their thing.
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Love that mural! Looks like a fun place to go eat and be with friends. 🙂 (Who are you talking to? As no one is in the booth with you).
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I’m using my imagination and talking to the people in the mural, PJ. 🙂
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Oh, okay!! LOL!!
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the most interesting tromp deloil ( i think that’s how its spelt) was at a large mansion, where i worked for a private dinner party. it was of what the outside that wall used to look like, apx 00 years ago. In othere words it went from being a beautiful lounge / dining area to a stunning landscape of the woodlands, that were once there. I nearly, along with otheres walked stright into it. that is how life like it was.
i still love your diner.
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That’s a great likeness, walking into a wall thinking it’s the woods. Wow, Louise. Or should I say Geez, Louise?
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Nice, Mark … and thanks to you, I still can’t look at that Buddy Holly image without thinking of Joe Paterno!
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They were about the same age, no?
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OK, had to look it up. Paterno born 1926, Holly 1936. Unreal when you think of the different life spans they had.
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Thanks, Jim. It is pretty amazing about the short explosion and long, slow burn.
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That s cool Mark. I’ve never seen one inside a buidling but as I mentioned there ar a few towns around here that have many of them. For instance Pembroke has 33 building sized murals – http://www.pembrokeontario.com/tourism/art-and-culture/pembroke-heritage-murals/
I worked for a retail company – Giant Tiger – and one of their trademarks was murals of tigers and/or other scenes pertinent to local history on the sides of their store buildings http://www.gianttiger.com/category/community/murals.do?nType=2 They had one Artist Pierre Hardy, who painted all of them It has been the work of years, They were actually quite stunning.
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That’s a great job, going around painting like that on buildings. What a telent for Pierre Hardy. Thanks for the links, Paul.
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