Spray paint, brushes and music fill the parking lot of Unexpected Art Gallery every Monday evening for the gallery’s weekly event: Mural Monday.
Mural Mondays, formerly known as Taco Tuesdays, started in July 2017 when the founders and facilitators wanted to give artists and muralists a safe space to practice their technique and style.
“It’s an experimental workspace for artists,” said Nathaniel Jack Greene, the event’s facilitator. “We consider it a club. You’re a part of a cultural development event. From week to week it evolves and grows in its own way and serves the community.”
Greene said Mural Mondays are open to anyone, from beginners who may not have ever picked up a can of spray paint to artists who have been coming to the gallery for years. He said this combination allows the two to engage with each other, maybe evolving their styles or learning something new.
“I think it’s the friendliest opportunity to meet local Phoenix artists on a weekly basis,” Greene said. “It’s the place to come to feel accepted because it’s not about who you are or what your style is or if you’re better than somebody else. It’s that you’re there to learn.”
Unexpected owner Julie Jennings said Mural Mondays also give new artists a way to experiment with their craft while still honoring the established artists’ work.
While Taco Tuesdays were previously doing well in concept and attraction, Jennings said young artists were coming in and turning it into more of a ‘tagging’ Tuesday.
“They were in some cases taking beautiful murals and tagging them and it really didn’t honor the art or the artists,” she said. “So I thought let’s take a hiatus, sit back and regroup, and let’s make it Mural Mondays which gives it more of a solid foundation where if something beautiful is painted, it persists.”
Jennings said Mural Mondays help teach these graffiti artists and muralists the right way to do art legally while respecting the community. She also said it creates an opportunity for artists to expand their styles to be more than just ‘tagging.’
“Tagging is like someone writing their name on something, and graffiti and murals are a quantum step above that,” Jennings said. “It’s a way for people who have an interest in leaving their name on something to create a beautiful painting with spray paint.”
Jennings said her favorite part about Mural Mondays is seeing the art and murals transform overnight and in daylight. A mural can look one way in the evening, and the next morning look completely different. Sometimes, a new addition is added to the mural or it is continued with a new style.
“We allow people to come in and create something from the beauty that might have started out as a simple swirl on the wall,” she said. “Adding a circle here, a line there, a squiggle there and the next thing you know it’s an alien creature coming to eat you!”
Muralists of all levels, techniques and styles attend this event weekly.
Hannah Goody is a new artist to the Phoenix area and attended her first Mural Monday. She said she saw it as an opportunity to get to know the people of the Phoenix art scene.
“I’m just starting to come out of my shell and trying to network with people,” she said. “I think it’d be great to see a lot of artists getting together and all for fun.”
Mural Mondays are held every week at Unexpected Art Gallery. For more information on getting involved, visit artphx.org.
Contact the reporter at smedwar7@asu.edu.
Sara Edwards was the executive editor of Downtown Devil. She is a graduate student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sara has additional bylines in Phoenix New Times, West Valley View, L.A. Downtown News and Boardwalk Times.
Sara is also the co-secretary for the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition.
