"Return of Pink Floyd"

Mural by Phillip Adams, 2021 (phillipadams.com) • location: 447 S Blair St, Salt Lake City, UT, USA • Phillip Adams is a painter and muralist based in Philadelphia, PA. In 2021 he won a bid to paint a mural on the new Mya apartment building in Salt Lake City. Trying to determine what kind of image he should propose for his bid, he wanted to do something that was local to the area. Through research he came across and was fascinated by the story of Pink Floyd (the nickname affectionately given by SLC residents), a Chilean flamingo who escaped from nearby Tracy Aviary in 1988 (they had forgotten to clip his wings!) and made the nearby Great Salt Lake his winter home each year until he was last sighted in 2005. The Mya building owners were impressed by this idea and chose to employ Phillip to adorn their building. In the mural, Pink Floyd is perched in Utah's Big Cottonwood Canyon, a short drive from SLC, with Sundial Peak in the background. Although Floyd was never known to visit the mountains, Phillip also found particular fascination with this peak and chose to make it and the surrounding mountains the backdrop for his homage to Pink Floyd. Phillip worked tirelessly on the mural from morning to night every day for an entire month, all the while hoping to be able to complete it in time to be able to make his own trek to Sundial Peak, which he had not visited before. I was a resident in the Mya building at the time (incidentally I rested my head every night directly on the other side of the wall—pun intended—from Pink Floyd himself) and had chatted with Phillip, bringing him a variety six-pack of Utah's renowned local beers to show appreciation. Though I was away on a camping trip when his work was scheduled to be completed, I asked around after I returned and found that Phillip was able to take a day to visit Sundial Peak in the end, and I was glad for this.