Joerael Elliott, whom Journal North featured in a story awhile back about the designs he created for the Santa Fe Institute to reflect various forms of complexity science, is making art outdoors again.
The former graffiti artist and semi-anthropologist for the form is bringing attention to water rights with his mural going up at Lena and Second streets. The large-scale work is being done in conjunction with his selection as one of the current residents pursuing the topic at the Santa Fe Arts Institute.
It’s a good choice for the location, with a simmering recipe of arts studios and cool hangouts in the area, including Iconik Coffee Roasters and radicle, a landscape design firm that stresses sustainable ecology and people’s stories.
As for Texas-born Elliott with time in Los Angeles and Phoenix, his blurb on the SFAI webite says his “intentions as a narrative artist and a teacher of Yoga is to create non-reductive works that cultivate a contemplative space of liberty through symbolism and the creative unconscious.”
In an email, he adds that the wall mural also addresses “current issues facing the Standing Rock event and Sioux tribe, as well as the Apaches with regards to Oak Flat in AZ.”
Meanwhile, just across the street from Elliott’s project is a semi-trailer painted by another artist, Alice D. at Cratestone, as the trailer advertises, reflecting Mexican motifs.
Just another spark of color to a colorful street.
