A bird in the hand is worth 100 flying in the air

Boston high-school students working for the Mayor's Mural Crew were on Archdale Road at Washington Street today, painting a new mural on the side of the Liriano Brothers' Market - when not taking breaks from the oppressive heat and humidity.

Grace Styklunas of Roslindale, the team leader, said they're painting a mural version of the Dominican version of the bird-in-the-hand saying - the store owners are Dominican.

Syklunas, who helped paint the dragon mural on the side of Dragon Chef in Roslindale Square last summer, said the mural program works with owners of local businesses to paint murals on the sides of their buildings. The Archdale mural is replacing an older mural showing a woman cooking dinner.

She added that while a crew shows up with a rough sketch of what the mural should look like, they do the actual mural freehand. She said the hand - which will eventually be shown holding a large bird - took three or four tries to get just right.