The mural wrapped around two walls of the pub at 11^th and P Streets in northwest D.C. shows a red British telephone booth and a color-burst of flowers.

But there’s more to the mural than its power to elicit smiles. It’s also steeped in symbolism, and subtly conveys messages of inclusion, unity and the benefits of diversity.

The flowers, the phone booth, the choice of painting it on D.C.’s Little Gay Pub, the colors of the flowers, even the number of colors were all chosen for a reason, Thalhammer told the Washington Diplomat in a Zoom interview.

The Little Gay Pub is in a very walkable location near Logan Circle, and has a lot of passing traffic, making it easy for Washingtonians and visitors to the city to see the painting, she said.

There’s also  what gay pubs and bars represent in LGBTQ+ history.

“Traditionally, gay and lesbian bars were community centers” for the LGBTQ+ community, said Thalhammer. “That’s where LGBTQ people would go to meet each other, to form community.”

Symbolic imagery

The phone booth – or phone box, as the Brits call them – symbolizes “communication and the importance of proclaiming these positive cultural values and our respect for the beautiful diversity of our whole human family and our world,” the U.K. embassy said in a statement.

It also carries on the theme of  the Little Gay Pub’s interior, where a door has been painted to depict a British phone booth.

“When we were buying antique doors for the pub, we found a very beautiful slim door for a nook off the bar slated to serve as our office,” said Sevilla.

“It’s a teeny-tiny space and the idea emerged to paint it gloss red, which we did – and the phone booth was born. It, like our famous bathrooms, has become a popular selfie spot.”

Flowers were included in the design, initially because Ambassador Pierce is reportedly a big lover of blooms, Thalhammer said. But they, too, took on more meaning than that.

After chatting with embassy staff, 42-year-old Thalhammer, who was born and raised in St. Louis, Mo., and whose only experience in England so far has been a semester at Staffordshire University in 2002 when she was a junior in college, thought of painting the rose of England on the outside of the pub.

Then, to better convey the message of inclusivity and diversity, she also opted to include flowers that represent the other three countries of the United Kingdom – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“So we have the yellow daffodil for Wales, the green shamrock for Northern Ireland, the violet thistle for Scotland,” she said.

The end result is a cascade of multi-colored flowers and shamrocks pouring down one side of the telephone booth, symbolizing “the U.K. coming together as a cohesive unit that accepts diversity and the LGBTQ community and welcomes all different types of people,” said Thalhammer.

‘A big hug of color’

The mural was Thalhammer’s first embassy commission, but not her first outsized project in D.C. The LOVE mural, which consists of the letters L, O, V and E painted in rainbow colors on four garage doors around the back of 926 N Street NW, is by Thalhammer.

It was painted in August 2017, in the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, and has become one of the U.S. capital’s most photographed walls, she said.

The mural at the Little Gay Pub, which is titled “GREAT Love is for Everyone,” is also likely to attract shutterbugs. The phone booth rises to the top of the building’s third story and wraps around one corner, giving the mural a three-dimensional aspect. The flowers are a welcome burst of color in sometimes dreary D.C.

Thalhammer used cold-weather spray paint to create the phone box and flowers over three weeks in January, working through snow and freezing temperatures one week, and unseasonably warm weather the next to get it done. She changed the tips on the cans to spray wide swathes of color or small, intricate lines.

Seven colors, seven chakras

Visitors to the site might notice seven colors of flowers falling down the outside of the phone booth. That, like many of the details in the mural, was a deliberate choice, Thalhammer said; the number of colors is the same as the number of major chakra energy centers in the body.

“I see my colors as the colors of the flag of humanity,” and public art as a way of bringing people together, Thalhammer said.

“The power of color, especially rainbow colors, in public spaces is very important because it represents a coming together and a recognition that our differences are beautiful and that they come together in a beautiful spectrum,” she said. “For me, conceptually, it highlights the beautiful diversity of our whole human family.”

She hopes the mural will boost the spirits of anyone affected by the turmoil, tumult and sadness in the world today, and that people who feel isolated and alone will  feel part of something bigger when they look at the mural.

“I want them to feel uplifted, even just for a moment,” Thalhammer said.

“I want them to feel embraced, empowered and supported by the energy of the color spectrum. I want them to feel a big hug of color.”