I just spent a very enjoyable weekend with my former Oakland, now Asheville, based friend Scott David Smith at a mural event in the River Arts district of Asheville, NC. Around forty artists covered the building with fresh murals over three days. The artists making work ranged from graffiti writers to a medical illustrator. There was great camaraderie, much fun had,  and the results were super-eclectic. I collaborated with Scott and Ashley Weber to make the piece pictured here.

My work was recently featured in Art Reveal magazine along with a short interview. You can see the whole issue here, or read the feature below.

For the last couple of months I've been working on a 1200ft long mural in Hayward, CA. That's right, twelve hundred long!

The soundwall separates an area of housing from the very busy traffic of W Winton Avenue just west of the 880 freeway. The location is mostly seen by passing motorists and I expect that most will just catch glimpses of fragments of the mural as they pass by.  With this in mind, the piece is a playful series of images and scenes that don't have any set narrative, but invite the viewer to imagine their own - like a children's story book, but with the text missing! I started off by thinking about the gardens that are behind the wall and what might be happening in them and let my imagination run from there. The result is a parade of botanical images, fanciful geometric city-scapes, rivers, thoughtful or energetic figures, origami objects, abstract patterns, and giant dogs.

This was one of those public art projects where a huge part of the experience was the daily interaction with the community. Thousands of cars pass the mural every day, and many, many motorists shouted their positive reactions and encouragement as they saw the mural taking shape. Also local residents, especially around the Stonewall Ave corner stopped or came out to say how much they enjoyed and appreciated the work. The comments were truly appreciated and I loved the conversations - they're what doing these public projects are all about.  I was touched by, and am immensely grateful for my work being accepted and embraced by the community, and thank the staff at The City Of Hayward who made the project happen.

I don't yet have the definitive final set of photographs yet, but here are some shots of the piece taking shape.