Pittsburgh muralist Kyle Holbrook dips into film with 'Art of Life' on Amazon

Pittsburghers might remember Kyle Holbrook as the artist who, in 2019, created a mural of Pirates great Roberto Clemente on the side of the Clemente Museum in Lawrenceville and another of the late rapper Mac Miller in East Liberty.

Holbrook, a Wilkinsburg native who splits his time between Pittsburgh and Miami, is showing another aspect of his creativity in the movie, “Art of Life,” now available on Amazon.

He directed, acts in and was one of a trio of writers for the film that features a video of a previously unreleased Miller song called “Pittsburgh.”

Miller also helped behind the scenes on what Holbrook describes as an “action/art film” that was filmed between 2009 and 2014 in both Pittsburgh and Miami.

The main characters, Chay and Cheyanne, are played respectively by Kristoffer Smith and Joy Taylor, a Pittsburgh native who co-hosts “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1.

Like “many young men and women living in hoods across America, (each is) looking for a way out of the suffocating pain and misery of their surroundings,” the Amazon summary says.

Chay is in jail and Cheyanne is in a dead-end job — he dreams of being a comic book artist and she dreams of being a dancer. They’re brought together — ironically, Holbrook says — through a mural project.

More than just an action movie, Holbrook says, “Art of Life” contains animation, color manipulation and other features that make it more a work of art. Due to “violence, language and nudity,” he adds, the movie is appropriate for mature audiences.

Pittsburgh artist Vanessa German contributed three poems to the project, made in conjunction with Werm’s Eye View Productions of Pittsburgh.

A 2015 distribution deal fell through, Holbrook says, “and then I got busy, so it kind of got tabled, but I still felt an obligation to bring it out.”

It was recut in November and came to Amazon via a distribution deal with Shami Media Group, Holbrook says.

In the interim, the film screened at the Pittsburgh International Film Festival, American Black Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival and at theaters in cities including Miami and London.

“It’s a different medium for me,” says Holbrook, the founder of the Moving the Lives of Kids (MLK) Mural Project. His past work includes more than 200 Pittsburgh public art projects, along with murals in Miami, London, Italy and other places.

“We’re getting good feedback, and it’s exciting having it out there,” he says. “The movie is for everybody, but really it’s a Pittsburgh film — Pittsburgh actors, Pittsburgh talent. I hope (Pittsburghers) enjoy it.”