arts&life

art

A Mural Of
Many Colors

L.A. muralist Bunnie Reiss

coats the Downtown

Synagogue.

JULIE EDGAR CONTRIBUTING WRITER

TOP: The mural at the Isaac Agree
Downtown Synagogue.
RIGHT: The artist’s signature.

32

July 5 • 2018

jn

L

os Angeles muralist Bunnie Reiss left
Detroit’s only synagogue a lot more colorful
than when she arrived, cloaking it in sym-
bols of luck, love and protection.
Reiss, 43, took a week to paint her mural on
the back of the four-story Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue on Griswold Street. It has a hamsa (an
open hand that is meant to protect the wearer
from the evil eye), a pair of identical birds in mir-
ror image and other folk symbols and shapes she
says remind her of her Eastern European roots.
The 98-by-50-foot mural is one of three in the
immediate neighborhood. Across Griswold is
a new black-and-white expressionistic mural
by renowned Detroit artist Charles McGee,
and behind the synagogue, on the flank of the
Detroit City Apartments on Washington Street,
is a neon geometric design by local artist Beverly
Fishman, who heads the painting department at
Cranbrook. There is a feel of an open-air museum
in Capitol Park, as the area is designated.
Reiss’ mural, completed in May, is embroi-