Wall to Wall Street Art Safari

How to spend a beautiful late summer day in Decatur. Hop into your convertible, and cruise around our little burg checking out the amazing, intriguing, and provocative murals created as part of the Living Walls Conference.

Doodles, Gaia, and Nanook

What is the Living Walls Conference? According to their website, “The idea behind Living Walls is to put the work of a very small subset of the population (street artists, graffiti writers, etc), people who actually interact with space, and people who spend their time in discourse about public space all under the same roof. Our intentions are simply to broadcast … a wide spectrum of ideas about public space, hoping that everyone leaves the event looking at the city, its walls, and how we interact with space differently.”

Greg Mike

In addition to the actual conference, artists from around the world created twenty-four new works, with fully eight of them right here in Decatur. Such bounty!

PLF

I read this quotation from one of the artists, in a radio piece that ran on WABE.

“Michi (Meko) says that there’s an allure to painting on a wall regardless of whether it belongs to you or not. ‘Where this was a dead space, now it’ll be alive, no matter what’s there, and once you put something in a space, you can never take it away because then that space will die again.’”

But can they be taken away? These murals are mostly to be found on private property. While permission was asked for and granted, property can change hands, and not everyone will make the same esthetic choice.

Freddy Sam and Ever

I urge you to drive, bike, or walk; experience them all on some beautiful autumn afternoon soon.

For convenience, here’s a little map I made and a list of the mural locations around Decatur. (And one more picture) You can find information about the entire project, and the complete list of artists, on the Living Walls Conference website, referenced above.

Jason Kofke

Map to murals around Decatur

	PLF E Lake Dr Decatur, GA, Oakhurst neighborhood
	Greg Mike 2191 College Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30317
	Freddy Sam & Ever 302 E Howard Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
	Jason Kofke 308 E Howard Ave Decatur, GA 30030
	Doodles, Gaia & Nanook Twain’s 211 East Trinity Place Decatur, GA 30030
	Michi & Adrian Barzaga Beacon Hill Recreation Center, 430 W Trinity Pl, Decatur, GA 30030
	Sam Parker Dancer’s Core, 133 Sycamore St, Decatur, GA 30030
	Gaia & Nanook Squash Blossom, 113 E Court Square, Decatur, GA 30030