About the Mural

A beautiful woman in a spacesuit tumbles across deep blue and orange waves, on this mural by Sarah Page.

The address, 4139 7th Terrace South, will get you close. This is one of 5 murals just North of that building, facing the Pinellas Trail.

The title of this work is Progress. 23 feet high and 65 feet long, the mural is inspired by a black and white photo of astronaut Anna Lee Fisher, printed in Life magazine in 1985. . . the first mother in space.

Her face and her spacesuit are white and grey and black, the shades of a black and white photograph contrasting with the richly colored background. The top two thirds of the mural are mostly deep blue green, the colors of an ocean that’s rippling with waves.

The bottom third of the mural is rich orange, with subtle lines of clouds.

The blue green waves behind rise to their highest point around her waist, like a tidal surge blocking the sky. Beyond the sea, the top edge of the mural is blue, and thick with glowing out-of-focus stars, like an impressionistic painting.

The astronaut floats across the mural, her legs stretching toward the left, her head aimed at the right, her body arcing in a curve. Her right knee is slightly bent, almost touching the top of the mural..

Her left leg hangs weightless, stretching out and down, toward the bottom of the mural. One corner of her boot is cut off as it falls below the edge.

Her legs arcs down and to the left – her head and shoulders rising, stretching toward the right. Her white spacesuit is elegant and slender, stylized with black lines that indicate that the knees and elbows are flexible. Two angled black lines form a V where her legs join her torso. Two tubes stretch across her hips, in the shape of a curve that echoes that V, in reverse.

Her chest is covered by a simple, rectangular breathing apparatus. Her helmet is wide and rounded, with a streamlined metal ring around her neck and metal arcing behind her head. The metal bands that frame her face meet at an oversized circular joint with a dark center, behind her ear.

The shield she’s looking through is clear. It glints in the light, revealing a dark interior that frames her striking, stylized face. Her face is calm and focused, looking up.

Her left arm is bent, drifting toward her left hip. Her left hand rests on a large transparent bubble, glinting in the light and revealing the textured orange clouds below.

Her right arm stretches up and out, palm up and fingers open, floating on a bubble so large it’s cut off by the top and bottom of the mural, magnifying the rippling blue green sea behind her and the orange clouds below.

The fingers of her right hand stretch beyond the bubble, reaching toward a full Moon in a sea of glowing stars, in the upper right corner of the mural.

The angled white capital letters, “S. PAGE,” are in the lower left corner of the mural, and SHINE 2018. A single white line slashes across “PAGE” – that line is the connected cross-pieces of the letters P, A, G and E.

Sarah Page is based here in St. Pete, with a day job in the nonprofit world. This is her largest mural to date, completed in 7 days with brush and spray paint. Muralist Michael Vahl helped with the astronaut’s face.

Sarah shares a quote from the first and youngest woman to fly in space – and still the only woman to complete a solo mission – Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

“A bird cannot fly with one wing. Human space travel cannot develop any further without the active participation of women.”

In this mural, Sarah explains that the astronaut is reaching out into the future, towards new beginnings.