The Great Utterance – A Prayer to the Sun, by Cryptik, created for the 2017 SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.
For the latest work by Cryptik, you can also check out his Instagram. For more on the SHINE Mural Festival, including other artist participants, head here.
Taos Buffalo,1991, by John Nieto can currently be seen at The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, in St. Petersburg, Florida.
From the museum’s information plaque-
With vivid fields of color and strong lines, Nieto paints familiar imagery and expresses it the way he sees it. He spent most of his life in New Mexico, inspired by the light, land, and rich history of the region.
“The colors I work with are a reflection of the way I feel. Sometimes I literally see these colors up in the sky, and it is unbelievable for people who don’t live in this area (near Santa Fe). When I am painting, I feel a certain way, and I feel it in terms of a certain color. So I put it down, then that suggests another color.” -John Nieto
Brightmares was created by Alex Pardee (@alexpardee) for the 2016 SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida.
From the St. Pete Arts Alliance website about the work-
The mural is called Brightmare, 46 feet wide and 19 feet tall. An emaciated, purple, naked figure is bowed down under a huge, sagging rainbow-colored ball where her head should be. She’s bony and hunched over, with purple skin and long grey skeletal hands, pendulous breasts and a swollen belly. The figure is on tiptoe, knees bent, one hand on the muddy floor for balance.
The sagging striped ball covers her head and neck and droops toward her belly – a red dot like a bullseye in the center of the ball, is ringed with pink, blue, green, yellow and orange. It’s like a rainbow balloon that’s leaking air, and jammed onto the figure’s head. Colors drip from the ball, and purple splashes from her body, as if the entire mural is melting in the heat.
The figure is stooped in front of a gaping black hole painted on the wall, like the opening of a cave. At her feet, bulbous blobs of white, tan and brown are spurting mud and water into the air.
On the lower left corner, the muddy blobs touch a green metal door in the side of the building. The outline of the cave crosses vertical pipes and electrical connections bolted to the wall. Two dark metal exhaust ducts frame the figure’s heavy rainbow head.
The background of the mural is the same stark industrial tan of the rest of the building, a massive structure that takes up almost an entire block.
Alex Pardee is a multi-media designer and illustrator who’s brought his unique aesthetic to music, film, animation, clothing and comics. When he painted this for the 2016 SHINE Festival, it was the largest mural he’d ever attempted. Ricky Watts, another artist on our tour, flew in from San Francisco to help with the mural’s completion. The mural is painted in aerosol, but the gaping black hole is brush painted.
To your right, in the alley facing this mural, a small window with heavy metal bars reflects the mural’s rainbow colors.
Florida CraftArt Festival 2022 was this weekend in St. Pete and there were many great artists showing their work. One of these is ceramic artist William Kidd.
From his website about his work-
Inspired by the beauty found in the natural world, my work is not an imitation of any real living thing, but rather life forms that might exist in some other worldly place. Microorganisms, fungi, seeds, cacti, and sea life have been observed in great detail which have inspired me to create these “organic possibilities”.
Using a potter’s wheel and various hand-building techniques, my work is produced solely by myself in my studio. My clay of choice is a low-fire red earthenware clay which is then finished using oxide stains, underglazes, and my signature crawl glaze to create a rich textural, colorful surface that is unique to my work.
I have a sincere passion to create objects with clay and this energy radiates from within me into the work I produce.
Along with his website, you can also see Kidd’s work on his Instagram.
If you are in the St. Pete area, Florida CraftArt is a great place to find and purchase unique work created by artists from Florida.