Throwback Thursday - Art at the Park Inspiration

  The image above was created in the Procreate app on an iPad with an Apple Pencil, which has pretty much been my go-to art medium all year. It was inspired by a wonderful "street painting" event I witnessed and got to be a part of this past weekend through my job in celebration of Diwali. During that event, news outlets made the announcement that the ballot counts had determined that Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris had won the race. After days of uncertainty, we finally had a President and Vice President-elect! Anyway, the awesome event, gorgeous day at the park, and news made it a memorable time. Overall, I wanted to create an image that would reflect that. A small video recap of the event can be seen in the video at the end of this post.
​  It has also been beautiful to witness how much vibrancy newly added bright-colored table and pavement art designs bring to the spaces they are in. Located at Dix Park near the Flowers Field and behind DHHS' Kirby Building, The Secret Garden created by Saralaine Canva (ig: @sarahsface) and unity-themed table art by OG Designs now cause the area to stand out. I was not involved in this at all, but my coworker Trey Roberts connected the artists with Dix Park City of Raleigh staff and put in hours of work to make the installations happen. Photos below show the transformation as these works of art took shape, and some before and after captures. All shots of the areas beforehand and some while in progress were taken by Trey or created by the artist. I snapped all of the shots aligning those captures with the completed work while visiting the pieces.

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  I love and respect all of the work created by these artists. Special shout out to Candy Carver (ig: @candycarver), a well-known Durham-based Artist I've gotten acquainted with over the years through our shared art community.  She painted the two tables on the Big Field at Dix Park. These are in the middle of the same field Dreamville Festival was held at a little more than a year ago. Sarahlaine Canva also painted the pavement in this location, and you can see more of her work at www.sarahlanecalva.com. Don't forget to give all of these artists a follow if you want to keep up with their projects!

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More about the artwork and Diwali event can be found at the articles below:

• Indyweek
• ABC News

If you want to see the art in person, the mandala chalk drawings were temporary, so they'll no longer be on the site; however; the Flowers Field is located approximately at 2105 Umstead Drive Raleigh, NC 27606 (behind the Flowers Cottage; exact coordinates (35.7728, -78.6629)); and the Big Field is approximately 708 Blair Drive Raleigh, NC 27606 (exact coordinates (35.7699, -78.6628)).
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As always, please feel free to leave any questions or comments in the sections below! Until next time, peace.