MANHATTAN — Now she's the "Fair Lady" of Little Italy.
A multicolored mural of silver screen legend Audrey Hepburn went on display on Mulberry Street last week.
Brooklyn Street artist Tristan Eaton painted the 12-foot-by-7-foot mural on the southeast corner of Mulberry and Broome streets, on a wall belonging to Caffe Roma. The artwork is part of the Little Italy Street Art Project, a group founded last summer to build up the neighborhood as a creative destination.
Eaton's selection of Hepburn as a subject was a natural fit for Little Italy, co-curator Wayne Rada said Wednesday.
"Little Italy is a classic, historic place, and Audrey Hepburn encapsulates classic beauty," he said.
Another work by Eaton was planned for Mulberry Street near Canal Street in April 2012, but the priest at nearby Most Precious Blood Church rejected a mock-up of the half-child, half-animal painting as "pagan art," according to news reports.
Two more murals will pop up on the west side of Mulberry Street between Grand and Broome streets in the next month: ice cream scoops "with a Little Italy theme" by the artist known as Buff Monster, and a boat "that will symbolize the Italian experience of coming to America," by Beau Stanton, Rada said.
The Little Italy Street Art Project wants to cultivate a broader view of Little Italy among New Yorkers, Rada said.
"It's just not a place to get a tourist tchotchke or a plate of spaghetti," he said.
