Walking Mural Tour in St Pete

On my last visit to St Petersburg, Teresa and I did a walking tour of some of the many murals that can be found in the city. Here are just a few of the photos I took.

The Central Arts District in downtown St. Petersburg is proud to present Walking Mural Tours every Saturday morning starting at Florida CraftArt. Visitors will hear the inside stories of the making of over 30 murals found in the four-block tour.

It was sunny and hot, and our guide was named Veronica. We left the art gallery where we paid the $19 per person and headed to the back parking lot. There was one of the first murals painted, trying to cover up an ugly fire escape and rather bland building...

Across the parking lot was a St. Petersburg scene including IndyCar Series driver Dan Wheldon, who had raced a few times in the annual race in the local streets. His car is in the shadows on the right.

When local favorite Bill “BC” Woo, the Fish Guy,  passed in 2013, Derek Donnelly was there to get paint and love onto this heartbreakingly wonderful commemorative mural.

This is the mural Woo had started and now many artists have added fish and other things to the mural...

A lot of the murals we saw are located in the back alleys of the city. I liked the mathematical design. Veronica is pointing out that the blue-and-white checkerboard does not match up to the cement blocks they are painted on. The other two ladies were on the tour with us, one was local and the other was visiting from Texas.

One of the founders of the St. Pete Mural craze is Derek Donnelly, who I mentioned earlier. Derek Donnelly is now seemingly everywhere, spreading his passionately talented artistic expressions, luckily for us, on several buildings downtown. I really loved the iguana. Veronica said the city would not cut back the vines so no one wanted this block. I guess Derek made use of the vines in his mural.

Chad Mize is a designer and multimedia artist in St. Petersburg and former gallery owner of Bluelucy where he represented hundreds of artists and their work. Behind Bluelucy, you’ll find one of Chad Mize’s murals of a ’60s pop icon, starry-eyed Twiggy.

The next large mural was very familiar to me...

Los Angeles based graffiti artist, Shark Toof, is known for this iconic imagery of sharks. He has gallery exhibits and large-scale murals showing nationwide. Shark Toof embodies the techniques of an old master along with a keen eye for the right wall.

In the Eau Gallie Art District (EGAD), we have a Shark Toof mural that can be seen by anyone crossing the Eau Gallie Causeway. I shared this photo a while back.

This building is actually a theater. I wanted to capture how the shark and the back wall mural met...

Tes One aka Leon Bedore is an incredibly talented artist. Tes One is fearless in his style, and became a serious street artist and started painting murals in 1992.

Closeup of the Tes One mural...

A few more I liked including one at a local brewery...

An AARP sponsored mural, old lady skateboarding...(I forgot who the lady was)

Teresa really liked this one. Something to do with retirement...

Another AARP sponsored mural...

Arlin is a fine artist and designer from Brazil, now based in San Francisco, and his murals can be found worldwide.

Mural by Arlin...

Not a mural, but a cute sign for my shopping friends...

Ales Bask Hostomsky, or just BASK, is a local superstar whose talents and works have continued to grow and impress. Czech born, American artist, BASK never disappoints his many loyal fans, keeping them up to date on his Facebook page. When Bask was commissioned to work on Ironman 3, this comic book nerd’s dreams were starting to be realized.  “In the back of my head, I’m just thinking they want some graffiti,” Bask says. “Finally, the email I get from her is like, ‘Hey, the movie I’m working on is Iron Man 3, and Robert Downey, Jr. wants your work in the movie. I started tripping over myself to get to the phone,” he says. Having endorsement from Robert Downey, Jr. gave him a creative license, which is refreshing for any artist. “Nobody ever edited me, nobody said no. They just wound me up and let me go. Later I found out it was because of [Robert Downey, Jr.’s] endorsement,” Bask says.

Here is the local BASK mural...

Cecilia Lueza is an Argentinian artist and sculptor well known for public art pieces with vibrant images that can be seen in cities throughout the US. Cecilia Lueza started the project “Connecting the Blocks” where she mixes sand into the paint to make it safe for drivers and designs beautiful large scale art in city intersections.

According to Veronica, the Florida weather and heavy traffic have faded the vibrant colors this street mural had. It is still kind of cool though. They had to close the very busy intersection while the artists painted; I am sure drivers were happy about that...

We were back to where we started, the tour was over!