I’m excited to share that I was invited to participate in Forward, Warrior!!, Atlanta’s beloved annual mural event in the Cabbagetown neighborhood! This year’s event brought roughly 80 muralists together for a weekend of live painting, transforming the walls along Wylie Street into an incredible outdoor gallery of Atlanta street art.
My portion of the wall is located along the Atlanta BeltLine on Wylie Street, just west of Pearl Street, right in the heart of Cabbagetown’s famous collection of murals. Forward Warrior has been a part of the neighborhood’s creative landscape since 2014.
I’ve had berries on the brain this year, so I wanted to create my very first STRAWBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, AND BLOSSOMS mural using Georgia-grown berries. The piece features oversized strawberries and blueberries surrounded by blossoms, bringing the juicy, vibrant imagery from my studio paintings into the public art landscape of Atlanta.
I’ve painted plenty of fruit over the years, but this is the largest I’ve ever painted strawberries — and it was quite the challenge! There is something very different about translating the tiny details that make a strawberry feel juicy and delicious onto a wall that is over 10 feet tall. Instead of obsessing over every little detail the way I can in an oil painting, I had to think about the fruit as enormous shapes, colors, textures, and highlights that would read from both up close and from the BeltLine.
One of my favorite parts of painting murals, though, is that the artwork doesn’t exist in isolation. It becomes part of a community.
And I absolutely loved getting to know the people who make Cabbagetown such a special place.
While I was painting, I met so many neighbors, local artists, business owners, cyclists, runners, dog walkers, families, and regular BeltLine users. People stopped to chat, ask questions, tell me what they thought of the berries, share their connection to the neighborhood, or simply give me an encouraging “I love it!” as they passed by.
Those little interactions are one of the things I love most about public art. When you’re painting in a studio, you can spend days — or months — working on a piece without anyone seeing it until it’s finished. Painting on the Atlanta BeltLine is the complete opposite. The painting process becomes part of the artwork. People get to watch the mural develop stroke by stroke, and I get to hear the stories, opinions, and reactions of the people who will actually live with it.
That was especially meaningful to me as an Atlanta-based artist. I moved to Atlanta in 2015, and so much of my public art practice has grown out of my love for this city and its communities. Getting to contribute a giant explosion of Georgia berries to one of Atlanta’s most recognizable mural corridors felt like a pretty perfect way to celebrate that connection.
And apparently, the berries caught some attention!
My STRAWBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, AND BLOSSOMS mural was featured in a recent ArtsATL article highlighting this year’s Forward Warrior murals. Writer Art Rudick interviewed me and included a photo of me working on the piece.
It’s pretty surreal to see my work included in a story about the Cabbagetown mural scene, especially because this neighborhood has such a rich history of supporting Atlanta artists and public art. Wylie Street is a free outdoor gallery, with murals stretching along the neighborhood near the Atlanta BeltLine and Krog Street Tunnel.
I’m incredibly grateful to Peter Ferrari, curator of Forward, Warrior!!, for inviting me to be part of it, Cabbagetown, all our sponsors, and to everyone who stopped by while I was painting. Thank you for the conversations, encouragement, compliments, questions, photos, dog introductions, and general enthusiasm!
If you’re exploring the Atlanta BeltLine, make sure to go through Cabbagetown and check out the Wylie Street murals in person. There are dozens of artists and completely different styles packed into this stretch of Atlanta street art, and there’s always something new to discover.
And if you see a giant strawberry along the way, you’ve found me!