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This Issue 03/19/2009

• Ego of the Week: Bob Goldman
• Bikes: A Guide
• We’re So Moving On (yeah-ee yeah)
• Mirah, Mirah on the Wall
• A Hefty Brew
• 44 Bottles
• Peace out, Pottruck

Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens sneaks up on you.

Walking past 1020 South St., you understand that although “garden” might be a misnomer, you’re not sure what else to call the place. While the epicenter of the project is located here, the mosaic murals cover 33 city blocks with multicolored tiles, thousands of mirror shards, bricks, bicycle wheels and arches made of glass bottles the color of sapphires and Heineken. It’s overwhelming — at once obviously broken and yet perfectly assembled. Stand in the Gardens and you become Alice, falling down the rabbit hole in the phantasmagoric world of artist Isaiah Zagar’s creation.

One Friday afternoon in February, Zagar is at a private residence at 627 Kamball St. doing grout work on a mural in the backyard. At first glance he comes off as a cross between Doc from Back to the Future and Allen Ginsberg circa 1969 — he’s got a wild beard, a reflective, rambling way of speaking and a tendency toward constant motion. For a man who is almost 70 years old, Zagar moves with surprising agility. He refuses to sit still for an interview.

“One of the best ways to get to know me,” he says, eyes radiating mischief, “is to be with me when I’m working.”

***

Irwin Zagar, who goes by his Hebrew name Isaiah, was born in Philadelphia in 1939. When his father got a job in Brooklyn, the family moved near Zagar’s maternal grandparents, who owned a candy store in Coney Island. Zagar’s father joined an art-of-the-month club at the Museum of Modern Art, exposing his son to Monet, Renoir and Bruegel. Zagar relives those paintings as he recalls them, the colors and textures clear in his memory.

A last name ending in “Z” stuck Zagar in the back of his second grade classroom and bad eyesight kept him from seeing the front board. To pass the time, he drew all over the blackboard in the back and quickly earned a reputation as the class artist.

“Recognition for what I do has been real important to me,” Zagar acknowledges. “Because otherwise why would I do all these things in the street?”