Public Art

Mural by David Rice, who oddly isn't listed as one of the artists on the Bright Walls website. The site's map gets it right, though; it's number 35 on the listing. I know this wall pretty well. The parking lot's across the street from Jackson Coffee, and I've photographed the wall a couple times. The messy brickwork remains, but it's disguised a bit by the mural. As usual, I can't find that the artist named this work. His website just describes it as a Mural for Bright Walls.

Detail from David Rice's mural for Jackson's Bright Walls. The green signs--there's one for each mural--tell who the artist is, and where he or she is from (Portland, Oregon, in this case).

Another detail from David Rice's mural at Bright Walls Jackson. In truth this is more a photo of Rice's work surface than of his work, though I like and admire the painting I've captured here. Age has made the brickwork at the bottom of the wall ragged. Higher up the wall's less difficult, but hardly a consistent surface.

One last detail photo from the mural David Rice created for Bright Walls Jackson--a butterfly, and the artist's signature.

Here's a photo I took two years ago of an alley in downtown Jackson called Victory Lane. Since I took this photo the building's become The Lofts of Jackson . As part of the Lofts project the murals were removed so they could punch windows in the walls. Last month Jackson's Bright Walls effort put new murals on this wall. Simultaneously the city renamed the alley; it's now the Emma Nichols Garden, after a fugitive slave who lived a long life in the city . The landscaping has also been reworked since I took this photo. I'll show you the alley's new look tomorrow, and will follow with closer looks at the new murals.

Evidently they were spindly folks. The car's a Kaiser-Darrin , of which only 435 examples were built, all in Jackson, all in 1954. Looks like you could buy one today for less than $70,000 . Artist Tyler Voorhees discusses the car, the painting, and Bright Walls at some length in a blog post . It's worth reading. ========== I slapped a wide-angle lens on the camera to take this photo, then straightened out the resulting distortions. Which creates a different set of distortions. Bright Walls photographer Owley offers a different perspective .

Jesse Kassel's another Detroiter, and much of his work is in this general style . He talks a bit about his art on this page . As usual, I can't find anything specific about this mural. Kassel's posted a photo of the work to his Instagram account , but (also as usual) says only that it's part of the Bright Walls festival. ========== It's clear that the festival organizers intentionally put a set of Michigan artists on this wall of the Lofts of Jackson. It makes an interesting group. There's one more in the set--I'll show it tomorrow--then we'll look at the work on the other side of the alley.

As you can see, the alley's still labeled Victory Lane at the Michigan Avenue end. Presumably this will change at some point. But who knows? Clay McAndrews is from Jackson and is a graphic artist employed by Consumers Energy. He and his wife Leslie Youngdahl came up with the notion that Jackson needed Bright Walls and are active in the festival's sponsoring team . This is Clay's second Bright Walls mural, by the way. They're surprisingly similar .

From I Am Eelco's new mural at Jackson Bright Walls.

I've kinda shown you this mural before, but here's a better angle . As usual, I couldn't find a title for this one, but it's clearly a garden. Melissa Morse is a Jackson native who moved to New York when she was young, then decided Jackson was better for her and for her art . She seems to be active in the Jackson community. The work's on a second floor wall and is set back a bit atop another building, which makes it difficult to photograph. I shot my photo from Jackson Coffee; Bright Walls' photographer Owley apparently used a crane to get a better photo .

Bailey Sullivan says she's a " Brooklyn illustrator from Texas ," and symmetrical designs seem to be Bailzy's norm. This one goes all the way up the wall; I plan to show that tomorrow. This wall's the opposite wall of the building hosting Melissa Morse's mural , which I discussed yesterday.

In full, this time. 'Tis rather pretty.

Had I just walked a bit further on my first excursion into the Bright Walls project I'd have found this mural, as it's just a few steps beyond ZOER's effort behind Bella Notte. Jeremiah Britton 's a Jackson native, though he now lives in Brooklyn, where he works with Joe Geis . Together they head the graphics efforts at WeWork--although given the massive shakeup that company's undergoing you might think their jobs could be at risk. I wish them the best. The narrow alley makes this graphic difficult to photograph, and this photo doesn't really do it justice. Owley's photo on the Bright Walls website shows the same problem.

This mural's got a name! The husband/wife team of Key Detai l and Julia Yu-Baba (she often goes by just Yu-Baba) grew up and were educated in Minsk, Belarus, but now live in New York City. The automobile's a Jaxon (or maybe Jackson ), which was of course manufactured in Jackson early in the last century. This mural's extremely well documented on Key Detail's Behance page . The vids on that page were by Owley; I suspect the photographs were as well. Regardless, they're terrific. The videos seem to show that Owley used a drone to capture at least some of his images. That makes sense.

Claire Foxton's portrait of Wanda Beavers is just wonderful. Mama Tu-Tu runs a homeless shelter in Jackson . Claire's from Sydney, Australia, and this is what she does . ========== A bit of geography: This mural's on the back of the Lofts of Jackson's building, with the Emma Nichols Garden , where many of the festival's murals live, just visible on the right edge of my photo.. This location was the heart of the 2019 Bright Walls Festival . Most of the murals are just a few steps from this parking lot, and all are close-by.

The artist signed this project Karabo Poppy, which seems to be her normal practice. Ms. Moletsane's a South African, living now in Johannesburg, and to all appearances she's being quite successful . This work's nameless, but she describes it as a piece on "moving towards reaching potential." It's a striking mural, but quite difficult to photograph because of the extension on the adjacent building. The artist's Behance page for the piece also demonstrates that difficulty; an aerial (drone) shot on that page shows the entire mural, but still at an odd angle.

I left the alley after photographing Karabo Poppy's wall , turned right onto Jackson Street and after a few steps was all like "WOW!" Of course I crossed the street. Ouizi scatters flowers everywhere she goes. I'll talk about that a bit more with tomorrow's photo.

Louise Jones seems to name most of her murals but I've not seen a name for this one. Regardless, it's a wonder. Ouizi was born in Los Angeles, but has lived in Detroit since 2014; she credits the move to the town's supportive arts community. This is her second mural in Jackson ; here's hoping for many more.