Living Walls: East Atlanta Village

I painted this mural on the side of Tomatillo's in East Atlanta Village.

Atlanta!

In January, I am relocating to Atlanta full-time, and I can't tell you how excited and proud I am to be a part of one of my favorite cities in the world!
Last month I spoke to a Philosophy class at Emory University about public art, and got

 to share the work of some of my favorite artists and talk with them about the possibilities in public spaces. One student really responded and is now spearheading a light projection project on the Emory campus. I am so inspired by this, and by all the people and organizations in the city that are taking the initiative to cultivate the spaces around them. As if I needed another reason to love Atlanta!!

From Catherine Homan's Philosophy of Art class blog:

Ever since Molly Rose Freeman gave that lecture in class, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about public art and how it affects our community. I was completely moved by the entire notion of the genre, its spontaneity, its risk. I loved the work of Armsrock, the artist who employed projections in his work, and I wanted to share those ephemeral “light drawings” with the Emory community. That is where the Light Observations project began. I applied for a grant from Emory’s Center for Creativity & Arts to pursue this project, and I just found out that my project was selected.

Over the course of two nights in mid-January, a series of projections will appear near and on the freshman residence halls chronicling the everyday life of Emory residents. Perhaps scenes of students catching up on some homework will appear- one student just happens to be perched on the ledge of a window, the other on top of the study lounge’s roof. Maybe a squirrel will decide to take a peek on the festivities going on in Turman or Longstreet-Means. I want to integrate some of my quirky line drawings with the geometric angles of Emory’s modern architecture to produce something unique, something humorous, something welcoming for the new semester. With these projections, the warmth that is inside the residence halls will be directly translated onto the residence halls themselves, uniting our community even greater. And through the use of digital networking media, I hope to set up a portal in which many other Emory community members can submit their quotes and drawings for the project. I’ve even had some interest from students in doing multilingual projections as well.

This project is definitely going to be a new working experience for me, both within the physical work and the philosophy that now envelops my perception of the artworld. I’ve realized my work strives to be more powerful than I had initially expected because my work explores the relationship between concealment and unconcealment just as much as any other work of art. So thank you Martin Heidegger.

Living Walls video + photos

A Wall's Story from virginie kippelen on Vimeo.

Above is a video by Virginie Drujon-Kippelen, a photographer that I got to know when she photographed Living Walls for the New York Times.

Below are some of my favorite photos from Living Walls by Dustin Chambers.

For Creative Loafing.

Living Walls!

In one week's time, I am headed to Atlanta to participate in this year's Living Walls: The City Speaks conference!! There aren't enough exclamation points to express how excited and honored I am to be a part of this landmark  project. From the Living Walls website:


In [August}, 28 artists will visually activate our urban landscape in the first all-female street art conference in the world. This year, Living Walls will change the game for street art and Atlanta.


Hear, hear! The lineup of both artists and events this year is phenomenal and I cannot wait to see the magic that happens. In addition to painting a mural, I will be showing work in an exhibition with some of the most talented female artists from around the world, some of whom have been personal inspirations to me over the years. I'm excited to be debuting a live string installation, as well as unveiling some brand new paintings and drawings.


The events this year include film screenings, dance parties, bar hops, a gallery exhibtion, photo projections, live painting/installations, pecha kucha presentations, a bike tour of the finished murals and (my personal fav) a traveling drag show! Production week begins August 8 and official festivities run from August 15-19. You can also follow the conference on Facebook or Twitter and Instagram @LivingWallsATL.