ATL: City of Street Art
November 2019
Digital drawing, watercolor and gouache
24 x 32 inches
2019-2020 Book of Lists, Atlanta Business Chronicle
Artist Statement:
The Atlanta Business Chronicle (ABC) approached me to create an original work for the cover of their 2019-2020 Book of Lists. They chose to spotlight street art as the theme of this year’s publication because over the past decade, “Atlanta’s urban development renaissance has been punctuated by an explosion of street art, providing a colorful background to some of the city’s most vibrant communities,” states David Rubinger, ABC’s Market President and Publisher.
I want ATL: City of Street Art to honor the energy and passion of artists and arts organizations that have been working to lay the groundwork long before today to ensure that public art and artists can thrive in Atlanta. I began my career as an artist in this city and have benefited from Atlanta’s evolving and growing identity as a city of street art. I am making a claim that Atlanta is making a leading impact on the arts and want to continue contributing to that legacy by learning how to give back to my community through public art.
ATL: City of Street Art depicts artists’ hands through dynamic contour line drawings accentuated by gold leaf, molding the city and pouring their energy and passion into the landscape. This imagery evokes the extraordinary power of artists in shaping the Atlanta community—from creating experiences that heal and represent the underrepresented unapologetically to experiences that remind the city of its soul, serving as a moral compass that holds us accountable to a vision of Atlanta where we can all thrive across identities.
Public art makes art accessible to entire communities. I have been learning how to use my artwork as a platform to reclaim the immigrant narrative and to help immigrants in Atlanta feel seen and welcomed in the city they call home, without having to go to a museum, where they don’t often find work that represents them.