Edgewood Mural Project

Living Walls along with local artist Drew Borders are curating and producing a new public art exhibition featuring 6 local emerging muralists in Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood.

We are seeking community support to bring this exhibition to life and pay our artists fairly!

THE EXHIBITION

I AM MINE / WE ARE OURS - LIMITLESS TRANSFORMATION is a public art exhibition that showcases the work of six different women and nonbinary artists of varying cultural backgrounds as they explore radical LOVE as an act of resistance and personal identity in their journeys to self-discovery.

The decision of our identity is made long before birth. Factors out of our control such as race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender, and more set society’s perceptions of us.

How and when do we decide to make our journey to self-discovery our own?

How do we navigate through the psychologies of collectivism and individualism in the communities that shaped us while keeping LOVE as a guiding force?

“Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.” - Janelle Monae

THE ARTISTS

DANAE ANTOINE

VANNA BLACK

VISHAKA JANE PHILLIPS

CHARITY HAMIDULLAH

DANIELA RODRIGUEZ

ANGELA BORTONE

Vanna Black (she/her) considers painting as her first language. It is how she chooses to communicate her true voice while present on Earth. Painting large imagery of the sky and landscapes, Black chooses to express tranquility and whatever emotion decides to emote onto the canvas.

A lover of word composition, she enjoys how adjectives can be used to color nouns; how verbs can be used to portray actions. Black uses historical artistic references from performative art to visual arts to pay homage to her work.

Danae Antoine (they/them) is an Afro-Caribbean multi-disciplinary artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Their work utilizes drawing, painting, textiles, and sculpture. They seek to dissect and understand femininity in patriarchal structures through her practice.

Antoine has a BFA from Georgia State University. In recent years, Danae has had public art around Atlanta, including The Beacon, Underground Atlanta, and the Atlanta Beltline. She has exhibited at MINT Gallery, Dalton Gallery, and Eyedrum.

Visakha Jane Phillips’ (she/her) work is an act of synthesizing memory, family history, and place. The collaged nature of her paintings speaks to this synthesis and serves to mimic the convoluted nature of memory and blurriness of familial narratives. Many objects incorporated throughout these paintings are seemingly arbitrary but hold weight in her memory and their feeling of permanence.

Despite memory and the passage of time being at the foundation of the work, she has made efforts to evoke an impression more dreamlike than nostalgic. Though some aspects stay true to their reality for the sake of legibility, she makes no attempt to depict scenes realistically. Her wish is for the paintings to feel as alive as their location still is.

Charity Hamidullah (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist from Rochester, New York currently creating in Atlanta, Georgia. Hamidullah utilizes the power of art to dive deeper into her purpose and connect with others.

Charity embraces her vibrant cultural differences and upbringing to create visual narratives that many can relate to. Her colorful pallets are full of emotion, and life; symbolic of the diversity which co-exist in her story. Her work unveils chapters of growth, self-discovery, and empowerment.

It is undeniable that Hamidullah truly travels through her art as she examines different techniques, canvases, and mediums. But, no matter the style or approach; it is always made with love and the intention to inspire.

Karaoke Rodriguez (they/them) is a Colombian videographer, illustrator, and tattoo artist living and working between Atlanta, GA, and Bogota, Colombia.

Karaoke's work is attuned with liberatory practices and alternative ways of existing-- while mixing the ecological, the surreal, and the absurd, their images want to. remind people that it's okay to just be. Some of their recent projects include "Pan de Cada Dia," a short documentary exploring working-class consciousness and neighborhood-making through Colombian panaderias as well as an independent collective press shop in Lakewood, Atlanta.

Karaoke is meditating-- learning and unlearning moment by moment.

Angela Bortone (she/her) is a Dominican-Italian painter and muralist based in the metro Atlanta region. She is also member of the artist collective Living Melody Collective. Born in the Dominican Republic, she spent nearly a decade abroad in Germany before moving to Atlanta in 2002. Her energetic works of abstract figurative realism are inspired by feelings, emotions and thoughts. Figures coexist with inky splashes that represent swirling subconscious mind.

THE CURATOR

Drew Borders is a 2D animator, muralist, and illustrator based in Atlanta, GA. Drew enjoys collaborating with others, learning new skills, cracking jokes, and eating copious amounts of ice cream in one sitting.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The Arizona and Dekalb underpass is a pair of 115x16ft walls located in the Edgewood neighborhood of Atlanta, Ga. The neighborhood has seen a recent renaissance with the introduction of a retail district, affordable housing options and the revitalization of public transportation. As a growing community with an abundance of both car and foot traffic, many Atlanta residents make use of this underpass as a means of daily commutes.

The underpass at Arizona and Dekalb currently has a mural by world-renowned street artist Hense, that has been tagged and lacked maintenance since it was painted in 2012. This new mural project proposal includes plans for maintenance as well as the introduction of diverse, emerging street artists from the surrounding neighborhood, presenting a range of artists that represent their community in a new and exciting way–a public gallery exhibition of street art.

THE BUDGET

MURAL PRODUCTION - $15K

Pressure wash / clean up

Paint, primer, sealants

Heavy equipment

Sundries

PROFESSIONAL FEES - $40K

Artist fees ($5k x 6)

Production team fees

Media Team

OTHER EXPENSES - $5K

Insurance

Unveiling location rental

Marketing collateral

THE MISSION

Living Walls has long been on a journey to reimagine public art:

What does it mean to activate a place?

How can the powers that be support the communities they live and work in?

How can we give a platform to underrepresented voices?

How can public art inspire communities?

As we look toward the future, we imagine that public art will evolve. We will see new artwork and artists in public spaces. We will be surrounded by artwork that inspires us. We will have hope that artists can create careers out of sharing their stories. We will have an understanding of public art as love for our communities.

This exhibition, which includes women and nonbinary artists of color, who have been historically underrepresented and undersupported in the street art world, will tackle these challenges while shining a light on the neighborhood that Edgewood is known to be.

THANK YOU TO OUR PROJECT SPONSORS: