The Greatest Arrives On Elm Street

Redbootsali leaned in to paint his 34,000th black dot (give or take a few hundred) on an Elm Street pizzeria wall — and brought the late boxing great Muhammad Ali to life among newly-forged neighborhood friends.

As a result, on the exterior left wall of Brick Oven Pizza at the corner of Elm and Howe, Ali is now frozen in time, mid-punch. The renowned boxer is about to clobber George Foreman, in a scene from their fight known as the ​“Rumble in the Jungle.”

The image received its finishing touches on Monday night. It was the product of 13 hours of grueling work from Harlem-based artist Alili Maimaiti, also known as Redbootsali. It was commissioned by Brick Oven Pizza owner Kadir Catalbasoglu, who bonded with Maimaiti over their shared love of the boxing icon.

“We just want to make this corner more beautiful,” said Catalbasoglu. (Click here for a previous story about the genesis of the project, Maimaiti’s and Catalbasoglu’s shared devotion to Muhammad Ali, and the background of the artist, who immigrated from China.)

For Redbootsali, the mural was an opportunity to foray into the expressionist artistic style he’s always been drawn to. He recalled that in art classes, his teachers urged him to paint realistically. When he lived in the Washington D.C. area, he regularly found himself painting cherry blossoms on commission.

But Redbootsali has always looked up to abstract artists like Jackson Pollock and Picasso. ​“Why can’t I paint like Picasso, just because I’m a less established artist?” he said.

“For now,” he said of the mural, ​“this is my dream.”

In order to create the Elm Street mural, Redbootsali pixelated the iconic photograph of Ali and Foreman. Then he projected the image onto Brick Oven Pizza’s wall.

Utilizing a tarp to produce a shadow on a cloudy day last week, he traced the projected dots of various sizes in dark marker along the wall … 

… before filling them in with careful swoops of black paint.

As Redbootsali worked, customers filed in and out of Brick Oven Pizza, and pedestrians stopped by the mural to take selfies and pay compliments — and even form new friendships.

Craig Johnson (pictured) has lived in the area for decades. He has watched the mural take shape day by day as he rides his bike.

“Every time I come by, there’s something different,” he said.

Over the years, he has seen the neighborhood change before his eyes. ​“They knock stuff down; they build stuff,” he said. The mural brings a welcomed artistic flair to the area. ​“This right here — you don’t see nobody coming and painting stuff.”

“They should do more of it,” he added.

Yves Wilson, a photographer and former graffiti writer who just moved to the neighborhood, stopped to say hello as he passed by the pizza place.

“It’s like the old-school print style,” he observed of the mural’s pixelated composition. ​“It’s got a retro feel.”

He said he was glad that Brick Oven had put up street art, rather than an advertisement, along the side of its building.

“We got enough ads,” he said. ​“It’s encouraging to see these greats.”

Judson ​“JB” Brown (pictured) first spotted the emerging mural a few weeks ago when he parked across the street. He introduced himself to Redbootsali and commissioned a mural of his own: a painting on the side of a Sylvan Avenue building to commemorate his loved ones who passed away, Dave Hawkins, Ton Atkinson, Dennis Hopkins, and Ramon Hicks.

He stopped by the mural on Monday to go over Redbootsali’s design. He hoped the four faces painted together would echo Mount Rushmore.

As the sun set on Monday, Catalbasoglu (pictured) checked in on him every 30 minutes or so, bringing out a late-lunch pizza, offering to adjust the lamp that illuminated the wall.

When only the final few dots were left unpainted, Catalbasoglu filmed a video to post on Facebook: ​“This is the last section of the painting that we are doing of Ali’s head,” he narrated, walking with his cell phone camera along the length of the mural.

“I really appreciate my brother, Kadir,” Redbootsali spoke to the camera, thanking Catalbasoglu for providing him with the mural’s materials.

After filming, Catalbasoglu and Redbootsali brainstormed a caption.

“I feel great about the picture we are putting outside of Brick Oven,” Catalbasoglu suggested.

“Don’t say ​‘outside Brick Oven,’” Redbootsali advised. ​“Say ​‘at Brick Oven.’”

Local artist Eduardo Alvarez, who lives down the block from the mural, stopped by on Monday afternoon to say hello. He returned later that evening to watch the final brushstrokes.

Over the past several weeks, he and Redbootsali — whom he calls ​“Redboots” — bonded over their shared love of art. They hugged each other in a greeting.

“He’s not local, but he’s local now,” Alvarez said of his recently-forged friend. He pointed to the mural. ​“He’s up here forever.”