18th Street Gateway / "Prism" Mural / Crystal City, Virginia

The Mural Environs. Prism by Anne Marchand

Looking East towards the 18th Street Underpass, pedestrians and cars enter the Crystal City, VA neighborhood and have access to Metro across the street from the "Prism" mural. The mural spans 160' of the underpass creating a colorful pedestrian walkway and drive by. The Sheraton Hotel is situated on the corner of S.Eads and 18th Streets and has a side entrance to 18 Eads Bar and Restaurant. Many thanks to the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel Management for offering their facilities to assist the artists in creating the mural.


Store to Door Container held all our work tools over the course of the month, giving us the needed space to store paint and materials on a daily basis, the container sometimes working as a portable office. Thanks to Tom Johnston and the staff for support with the mural project! You folks are the best!





Two coats of a urethane, finishes the surface of the mural and gives it a soft satin sheen that helps protect it from the elements.



Prism, 9' 4" x 160', acrylic on concrete
Washington, DC Artist Anne Marchand, www.annemarchand.com
Commissioned by the Crystal City Business Improvement District

Varnishing and Photography

The last few days of varnishing and now Greg Staley has come to take photos of the mural. The team gets our fun pics as well! Anne Marchand, Jose Piedra and Michael Hammond

Le Signature

Prism by Anne Marchand



Varnishing to come....

Finished Sans Varnish

Sidewalk elements

Mural is complete and colors are being painted on the 5' sidewalk squares.

Plumb line

Adjustment to site contours. Working with assistants to plumb top edge of the mural

Stripes of Many Colors

We're on schedule. Our days work is careful attention to edges. Michael Hammond, Jose Piedra and I are working on stripes.

Anne Marchand

Jose Piedra

Anne Marchand and Michael Hammond

RED DAY Team, Crystal City, VA

We're at the halfway mark today. Our work schedule has been 9:30 - 5:30 daily. Since it's Saturday, we started an hour later and finished an hour earlier leaving time for the assistants to play in the evening. I'm doing inventory of how much more paint and supplies we will need. We had more visitors and great comments today.

Saturday and the team tunes in to the color RED.

Anne Marchand, Washington, DC Artist

Siobhan Gavagan

John Grunwell joins us for a day.

Eve Hennessa

A day's work on Prism Mural, Crystal city, VA.

Friday at the Prism Mural

South side of the 18th Street Underpass in Crystal City, VA

Today we do finishing details on the previous days work and begin drawing panels 17, 18, and 20. The weather is cooler and the paint is drying faster. I'm happy with the middle passages of greens which creates a soft glowing luster against the light blues. - Anne Marchand

Valerie Theberge Mosaics

Everyday, my team and I look across to the north side of the 18th Street Underpass in Crystal City, VA and watch the dazzling mosaics go up on the wall. Valerie Theberge's team is at it all week installing the last mosaics that adorn the wall. The mosaics are simply gorgeous! Sparkling and Radiant. The piece is called Radiance and the mirrored tiles twinkle and light up the underpass like fireflies. When the sun is low, rays of sunlight bounce off the tiles. Now that's dazzling.

The Crystal City Business Improvement District commissioned Valerie Theberge to create a mosaic mural on the 18th Street underpass outside the Crystal City Metro. The mosaic consists of individual mosaic pieces ranging from 4-9 feet in size spanning the length of the 160 foot wall. The mosaic is created from colorful glass tiles, stained glass,and mirror. Each piece is hand-cut and assembled in Valerie's studio.

Prism Mural / Crystal City, VA

At the end of the day/
Today's work in progress....

Mural Audience Speaks

Delightful! Lovely. It brightens up my day. I love it! Great job. This used to be such a drab walk. What kind of tape are you using? What a great idea for the underpass. It's coming along really well. Hi, love it. Who is the artist? You're kinda famous around here, aren't you? Did you have a design first? It really adds a lot of color to the space. Did you do the one across the street too? (No, that's the lovely Valerie Theberge's mosaic mural gracing the north side of the underpass.)

Thank you to all the lovely people who keep coming by with well wishes and accolades. We love you too!! - Anne Marchand and the mural team

Crystal City Metro Mural Panels by Anne Marchand


Mural In Progress

Anne Marchand and Mural Assistants

One of the beauties of making a mural is the collaborative effort. President/CEO, Angela Fox and Operations Director, Rob Mandle at the Crystal City BID, are actively promoting the arts in Crystal City. I have a great team of mural assistants working with me. Michael Hammond and Jose Piedra are onboard this week and Eve Hennessa joined us today. Another wonderful aspect of making a mural is the reaction of people on the street. We have daily "visitors," folks walking and driving by, who are delighted at the impact the mural is having in their community.

Anne Marchand
Meet the Team of Mural Assistants:

Siobhan Gavagan (stay tuned)

Michael Hammond


Jose Piedra
Eve Hennessa Mural assistants, artist Jose Piedra and Michael Hammond, visual arts and murals instructor for the Midnight Forum Hip-Hop youth program in Washington DC working on the Crystal City mural.