It’s 10 a.m. on a recent Friday morning and the large brick wall opposite the Rialto Theatre near downtown Tampa is shaping up into what looks like the city's largest Paint-By-Number.
Normally, artist and muralist Dylan Perry would stand alone, surrounded by his meticulously organized paint cans, as he primes the wall and sketches out the initial outline for the mural he designed on his iPad.
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But today, paintbrushes in hand and tongues peeking out in concentration, he’s joined by a rotating cast of members of the Tampa Heights community. Perry made an open call earlier in the week for people to join him in creating his first mural in Tampa.
“I sectioned it off and, like, here's blue. Paint inside the lines. I dumbed it down. You make it easy. It's like, there's no wrong answer to just throw paint around. We can fix it. We can paint over paint,” Perry said.
Making their mark on Tampa
Alice Montalto has never painted a wall outside of her own home. But she joined several other residents to add her contribution in the form of gray and blue blobs that will form part of the basis of the mural’s background.
Plus, she added her own secret flair.
“I drew a heart on there, and then painted over it so that my heart will be in the community forever,” Montalto said.
“I just think it's cool to have the community come down and take part in something that we can come back, weekends or year after year and say, you know, we were a part of that,” she added.
Jessie George has lived downtown for a year, but has lived in Tampa for a few years.
“I’m not from Tampa originally. Putting up some work into and investing into the city and the community is very important,” she said.
“It makes me smile every time I see a new mural. It shows me people other than myself are invested into making the city and community beautiful.”
Stella Davino is a communications and media major at the University of Tampa.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to make my mark on the community while I’m still here.”
The Downtown Tampa Partnership
Ivy Lupco, Manager of Public Space Placemaking & Programming for the Downtown Tampa Partnership, said the organization has made an intentional effort the last few years to focus more on the arts. The organization paid Perry to paint this mural, and hired several other artists for others.
Several “identity murals” have been installed in various downtown neighborhoods with color palettes and iconography specific to that area.
“The purpose is really that Tampa has a really robust art community, and no one really knows that they do, and it's a little underground. And so our intent is to bring a lot of light to that, bring artists here to tell the story of the community,” Lupco said.
“Something like today is an opportunity to not only tell the story of the community, but allow the community to be a part of that storytelling.”
Lupco said it also helps residents really buy into where they live.
“It's nice to be able to walk down a street and be like, ‘I painted that blue brick,” she said. “It causes people to want to venture into a different portion of a neighborhood in order to see it.”
The artist's vision
Perry's mission? To tell the story of Seminole Heights on one wall.
The finished mural will feature the Grand Cathedral, an old church converted into a cigar bar, Fire Station 5, built in 1925, the TECO Line Streetcar System, Armature Works, an alligator, palm tree, a lily, and of course, the Tampa Heights logo.
"Also some Easter eggs throughout the mural that you can find if you know what you're looking for," Perry said.
The unveiling
The full mural will be unveiled on Friday, April 17 at Rhythm & Hues: An Alleyway Art Show! From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the alleyway at 1617 N Franklin St. in Tampa.
But if you can’t make it or don’t mind spoilers, then slide to the left below to see the finished mural for yourself.
This story was compiled from interviews done by Sky Lebron for the Bay Blend Podcast.
