The crystal blue water is the backdrop for fish, turtles, a stingray and corals found living deep under the sea.
The four panels of the 9 feet by 14 feet mural outside of encompasses 100 photos that took four months to shoot.
Diver and photographer Cynthia Liefeld of Sewickley captured the sea life in the Grand Cayman. She created the deep sea mural by blending the dive pictures into one scene to “highlight the critical need for coral restoration as the essential foundation of the food chain.”
The piece was installed Monday inside Penn Avenue Fish Co. in the Strip District. It is made of washable, strippable wallpaper.
#Underwater #coral #reef mural compiled from close to 100 photos to increase awareness and support for coral restoration #cayman #pittsburgh Please visit https://t.co/O2syWGAWtt to learn more https://t.co/oNFqxq9uID
— Cayman Diver (@PhDivaDiver) October 20, 2020
Henry Dewey, the restaurant’s owner, said the mural blends perfectly with the decor.
“Cynthia is a great customer, a great friend,” Dewey said. “It is hard to look anywhere here and not see some type of fish, so her mural fits right in. It’s powerful.”
Liefeld hopes it’s more than a piece of art.
“The incredible bio-, socio- and economic diversity that coral reefs represent factor into our continued existence in myriad ways, from food sources, regional livelihoods, medicines, cultures, beaches, water filtration, land protection and more,” she said.
SpeedPro Pittsburgh North in Cranberry handled the installation.
“It has such vibrancy. It’s beautiful,” said Lynne Arrington, who owns SpeedPro Pittsburgh North, a large-format printing company.
The photos were captured at several levels under water, some more than 40 feet.
This is the first of three installations. Two smaller murals will be placed inside the Izzazu Salon, Spa and Serata in Downtown Pittsburgh and at the Sewickley Valley YMCA.
Liefeld said many corals have been destroyed because of climate change and rising water temperatures. She created PhDivaDiver Coral Foundation, which is part of an emerging worldwide effort to grow and restore coral.
She has been raising money for coral restoration with sales of her sea life/coral-life calendars, along with individual sales of large-scale aluminum prints of sea life.
Liefeld said healthy coral reefs are vital for the earth.
She became an underwater photographer more than eight years ago.
