A World Away

The theme of Erik Burke's mural, A World Away, relates to Mexican culture and the restaurant upon which it is painted: Miguel's. The entire mural consists of four different walls (two west facing, one south facing, and one north facing), each with its own scene painted on it. A muted greenish blue is carried throughout the background of the entire mural. On the west-facing wall on the left, the naturally occurring door and surround are painted over to appear older and more substantial. In the middle of the wall is a church with a green and blue stone and stucco facade with red trim, and people are gathered outside. To the right of this, a red cactus pear is painted in front of what appears to be a black, white and red striped sarape. As Burke explains on his website, he painted on the middle south-facing wall a "Memorial portrait of Miguel Ribera (original owner and namesake of [the] restaurant) with the phrase 'Out of This World,' [which] represents both his passing, as well as his passion for extra-terrestrial life." Ribera is painted against a plain brown background on the top half of the wall and brown and black basket-weave-like pattern on the bottom half. "Out of This World" is painted in the muted greenish blue that's carried through the entire mural. Burke's moniker (OU38) is painted in the lower-left corner of the wall. The west-facing wall on the right contains a scene of a woman with braided hair rolling tortillas. Light pink and lavender plumerias with yellow centers are painted in front of the same sarape that appears on the left west-facing wall. Burke's moniker is also painted on the lower-right corner of this wall. The adjacent north-facing wall is painted with thick stripes: brown, yellow, white, red, blue, black, brown, yellow, green. According to Burke, this mural is based on personal photos he took while in Oaxaca and on Diego Rivera's painting, La Molendera.