Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program is responsible for a city-wide graffiti clean-up over the past 20+ years. In short, they try to recruit teens that illegally use graffiti on Philadelphia buildings, and instead pay them to be legitimate artists. As a result, Philadelphia now has 3,000 murals covering its buildings, the most in the entire world.

As a teen, Steven Powers was recruited by the group to turn in his spray can and stop illegally painting on buildings.  He refused to join. Now, at the age of 41, he’s since changed his ways, and has had work featured in many galleries like the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

His newest project is a series of murals all over West Philadelphia, entitled “Love Letter.” Powers has painted cryptic and creative love messages across 50 rooftop and street-level buildings. In addition to changing the image of West Philadelphia, there is now a tour that visitors and residents can take along SEPTA’s Market Street corridor. You can find photos of the murals here.