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It’s socially charged, it’s h

— Kathryn Pannepack

A loaded paintbrush in hand, the artist Kathryn Pannepacker

crouches down and applies a black stroke to a steel panel. It’s a

late afternoon in January, and it’s starting to snow. The welcoming

glow of the Sunoco mini-mart and the car wash’s green neon signs

cut through the gathering dusk. She finishes the touch-up on her

W all o f Rugs #2

mural (Jordon now reads Jordan), rights her tall

frame and surveys Philadelphia’s Broad and Lehigh Streets. Kitty-

corner is the empty Botanj' 500 building, the apparel company’s

brick edifice, a commemorative remnant of a once-booming gar-

ment district. Throughout the early part of the 20th century,

Philadelphia was famous for its textiles—silk hosier}', men’s suits

and wool carpets.

Pannepacker knows this intersection well. Over summer and

fall she worked daily on the 115-foot-long mural—each of the 18

diamond plate steel panels, which separate the roadway from the

train tracks, represents a textile from a different country. Her

048 american craft

apr/may 09