The History/Culture Behind 'Cliff Dwellers'

This mural, measuring 60 feet by 45, on the side of 'The Burgandy Room' (a tapas and wine bistro in Columbus, Ohio) was painted in 2005 by (now married) Curtis Goldstein and Michelle Attias. The subject matter, a recreation of a 1913 painting by Columbus native George Bellows was fitting for the Short North neighborhood, in which most murals are reproductions of artistic work by famous masters.

Goldstein said that the choosing Bellows masterpiece for his first mural in Short North was "an attempt to educate Columbus about Bellows, who was a native, and truthfully the mural is reminiscent of what Columbus may have looked like 100 years ago when the area was more of a village than a city.

The mural came into being when Curtis Goldstein approached various parties in Columbus expressing his desire to do a large scale outdoor mural. Once a location was determined, BrickStreet Arts Association, a group dedicated to the promotion of public art in Columbus's urban neighboorhoods, lent it's backing and funding was raised from grants from many of the same parties who funded 'The Mona Lisa'.

  Curtis was a logical choice of artist for this specific of mural, given his views on art, as is apparent from an interview with students from Graham School, working on their own mural, in which he offered these words of wisdom: "part of my mission as an artist is to get people to be proud of where they're from" and that "art should serve a social purpose", both of these ideas are sucessfully accomplished in his recreation of Bellow's 'Cliff Dwellers'.