Surrealism in East Atlanta

Photo by me, March 2014.

Joe's Coffee was my first stop that morning in the East Atlanta Village for coffee and conversation and then I set off on foot to do some photography. Up from the shop on Flat Shoals Avenue was the Argosy and I peered around the side to find this remarkable mural. The mural was painted in 2012 by the higly-regarded Ukrainian artists AEC and WAONE who go by the name Interesni Kazki. The two have done incredible murals all across the globe.

Photo by me, March 2014.

There is much to digest in this mural and I cannot pretend to understand it.

Looking at it from the left there is the older man opening a box set atop a book and another human form with a bird coming out of the top. A face in the front of the box is projecting a pink rose and from that comes a night sky which leads to the ocean and fish swimming.

Photo by me, March 2014.

Going further to the right the mural evolves with different levels of people supporting each other and a large man at the center with a woman inside set in a pastoral scene. At the very top is an arm outstretched carrying a lantern as if to lead the way. More to the right the largest man holds a geometric shape that has a town or village painted on it with fish entering on the reverse side as if going upstream.

Contained in the mural we have trees, birds, fish, a flower, the stars, the ocean and humans. For me the mural evokes thoughts of evolution of man and nature and how we should support one another in our existence. I could be entirely wrong in my interpretation but that's the intriguing part of art is coming up with our own interpretations.

More about surrealism.

Monsters At The Asylum

March 2014. Photo by me.

This mural was painted in 2012 as part of Living Walls and was painted by the artist Fefe Talavera. Fefe Talavera is known for painting monsters in her native Brazil and for her it is a cathartic experience. She said in an interview, "the monsters are a way of exorcising my feelings, my angers, my sadness, my ignorance, my fear...it is the only method by which I succeed in expressing my rage, at life, my fury."  

March 2014. Photo by me.

I love the red, black, and white colors she chose to use on the side of the Asylum building on Flat Shoals Avenue in the East Atlanta Village. Unfortunately I couldn't get a closer look at the mural because it is behind a chain link fence and peeking through the wire mesh kind of takes away from the beauty of the work on the side of the wall. Or I suppose you could interpret it as the monsters are locked away kind of like animals at the zoo? In the monster on the right I notice the face of a human lurking behind the shapes of the monster. It makes me think of what the artist said about exorcising her inner monster through her work.

This mural is one of several in the East Atlanta Village so take a stroll around and take in all the free public art awaiting you.