Flo’

Painted in November 2018 as part of Downtown Art Beats, Flo’ was created for a Raleigh public art initiative that invited artists to install small semi-permanent sidewalk interventions throughout downtown. The original call was issued by the City of Raleigh Department of Transportation and the Raleigh Arts Office in partnership with Artspace and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, with selected artists creating work across the downtown district.

Installed directly behind the Raleigh Marriott City Center and across from the Raleigh Convention Center, Flo’ translated one of my intuitive paintings into a public-facing mural designed to surprise pedestrians with color, confidence, and delight. The original painting, Go With the Flow, would later be donated to the VAE Auction & Gala in support of the arts.

At the time I applied to the call, I had only officially painted one mural before — my April 2018 mural at Imurj, Ladies Night — so my portfolio of previous work samples relied on that first wall and several completed paintings to communicate my visual language. The selection team was especially drawn to the painting with the blue-haired figure and felt that its flat-color, pop-art sensibility would translate well to the sidewalk format. I was asked to create something in a similar style for the mural, and I gladly said yes.

The title Flo’ came from an original painting - created through an intuitive process - titled "Go With the Flow". The title worked on several levels: lava flow, water flow, flowing hair, and the creative state of flow itself.

As Flo’ moved from painting to pavement, several elements shifted. I extended her lower body because the original crop from the canvas would have felt incomplete at mural scale. I changed her outfit from a bikini to an outfit she would feel more at home wearing in a downtown Raleigh setting while still preserving the energy of the original figure. I also added a phone and headphones so she would feel like someone you might realistically pass in the city.

The background was simplified as well. At one point I considered removing the water altogether, but then I remembered that North Carolina’s landscape includes hills, mountains, and bodies of water. My first thought was Lake Johnson Park in Raleigh. Having walked those paved greenways around the lake on multiple occasions, I know firsthand that the terrain there is hilly. In the end, I kept the water but simplified it along with the rest of the setting so the focus could remain on Flo’ herself.

My figures tend to lean more toward animated, essence-driven characters than lifelike portraiture. That likely reflects my background in graphic design, but it is also simply what interests me. I am less concerned with realism for its own sake than with creating figures that carry feeling, energy, and presence. With Flo’, I wanted people to look at her and feel happiness.

For me, Flo’ carries the spirit of flow itself — movement, music, confidence, and the spark of inner life I hope people feel when they encounter her. She began in intuition, became clearer through digital translation, and finally landed in the path of everyday pedestrians as a small invitation to pause, imagine, and delight in the unexpected.

Title: Flo'
Size: 9' h x 7' w
Site/City: S. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC 
Medium: Porch & deck paint.
Date: November 2018.