Diarchy by Bekky Beukes was part of the 2018 edition of SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.
Oct 262023
Jan 272023
The Voyage was by Matt Kress for the 2018 SHINE Mural Festival. The mural was sponsored by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team (note the football under the skull). For more of Kress’s work, also check out his Instagram.
This weekend the annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival continues with The Parade of Pirates which includes floats, marching bands, dance groups, and, of course, pirates.
Jan 232023
We Are Going to Be Friends was created by DAAS for the 2018 SHINE Mural Festival.
From the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance website about the work-
DAAS: “I’ve kind of been doing these murals of this young girl. I kind of like following the story of her life, her youth and just her experiences interacting with nature, animals and things like that.
“Everything is like a playful scene or moments where she’s contemplating, you know, future things. This is a long story I’ve been developing. This one is just part of the story.
“All the colors that are here are supposed to vibrate. They’re supposed to represent positive emotions, they’re supposed to elevate.”
Which part of the story is this mural? Where is this in her storyline?
DAAS: “Well, I’m still developing it. I’m kind of following it as it goes. I just started doing it about three murals ago, so I’m still kind of in this process of figuring it out. What is this story after this one? I’m starting to focus on that. I need to really lay out the whole idea.
“But I want to keep her the same age, you know? So my next mural will feature her, and until the foreseeable future, I’ll keep using these experiences. I guess it’s kind of a way for me to kind of go back in time, just reflect on less hectic, closer to nature kinds of feelings that I don’t really get much in such a big city all the time. I don’t really get to experience that, so I’m kind of following it.”
Where are the other three murals that you’ve painted with this girl?
DAAS: “There’s one in Italy and there’s two in China.”
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, DAAS lives in Japan. His bold designs blend cubism and abstract techniques. He does canvas work in his studio and paints murals around the world.
DAAS uses an intricate taping process to scale his rendering on a wall before he starts to paint. This mural was completed in 7 days with only spray paint, and became one of the artist’s favorite designs in his career.
Today is the beginning of the Lunar New Year and it is the Year of the Rabbit, so it seemed like a good time to post this mural. Hopefully this year will be a good one and new friends will be welcomed into our lives.
Jan 072023
Notice Us was created for SHINE Mural Festival 2018 by Michelle Sawyer and Tony Krol. Together the husband and wife artist team create murals under the moniker illsol. The mural depicts the endangered Florida panther.
For more of their work, you can also find them on Instagram.
Oct 192022
The Blue Hour by Cecilia Lueza was created for the 2018 iteration of SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.
From the St. Pete Arts Alliance website about the work-
A rich, dusky blue with vivid rainbow swirls and the blue-tinted profile of a woman lit by moonlight is the focal point of 100 1st Avenue North. The mural is on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and 1st Street North, across the street from The James Museum.
Cecilia Lueza calls this piece, The Blue Hour. She explains, “It’s inspired by that magical time between daylight and darkness. It explores the visual effects of color, and movement, while evoking wonder and contemplation.”
The mural feels intimate, two sides of a corner angled inward. The left-hand side, facing east, is 17 feet high, 18 feet long. The right-hand side, facing south, is 17 feet high and 22 feet long.
The background is a rich, deep blue, the color of the sky moments after the sun sets. On the right half, facing Central Avenue, a calm and lovely woman’s face looks toward the right. Her face is in profile, from the neck up, so large that the top of her head is cut off by the mural’s edge. She’s painted a range of dark and lighter blues – and very realistic – like an idealized black and white photograph that’s been tinted blue.
Her expression is thoughtful, as if she’s been watching the sun set and is looking at the quickly fading colors as the stars and Moon begin to glow around her.
Her profile shows a graceful neck, high cheekbones and a smooth forehead, one dark eyebrow in a curve, and long dark lashes. The right edge of her face is outlined in light, as if she’s facing a full Moon. Her eye, her cheek, the edge of her nose, her lips, her neck and throat, are highlighted by moonlight. The rest of her face, and her neck, are dark indigo.
Instead of the long dark hair we expect, thick swirls of blue and green – and swirls of red, pink, orange and gold – flow behind her head and across the left half of the mural, the half that’s facing 1st Street.
A swirl of blue, in stripes from dark to light, touches the back of her head, falling in an undulating band from the top of the mural to the ground, as if this ribbon of color continues past the edges of the mural. Another end of this long band curves down and sprawls across the left half before arcing up and away.
A band of color striped from yellow and green to blue, twines across the left half of the mural before it swoops around the other blue band like a crochet stitch.
Behind the swirling blues and greens is a wave striped in pink, red, rose, watermelon and peach. It twists behind the blues and ducks under another wave, with stripes that run from red to gold. The blue-green swirls and the red-pink-gold swirls dive and tangle, full of motion.
The mural is a lovely combination of the calm and thoughtful blue-toned woman gazing out as light falls on her face – caught in thick waves of color.
Cecilia Lueza was born in Argentina and is now based in St. Pete. She’s known for vibrant public art pieces in a range of media. She explains that this mural has a sense of identity, and an element of discovery.
Her goal with this corner space “was to create an uplifting, evocative, and colorful focal piece that could be viewed and enjoyed from every angle.”
Lueza’s website is linked above, but more of her work can also be found on her Instagram.