Completed this spring following a multi-year process of research, interviews, and sketching, this dynamic new mural stretches across 4 exterior walls and captures the creative spirit of Scott’s Addition. It features nearly 100 vignettes of the creative process and honors the past two decades of the DIY community who have contributed to the legacy of this ever-changing Richmond neighborhood.

Press Release

Artist Statement

I talked to many people about their experiences of setting up shop in Scott’s Addition in the early 2010’s, when many warehouses sat unused and the streets were wide and empty. Moving in, no one had much awareness of who else was in the area. “No one else was here.” is what I heard over and over again, despite the fact that they all moved in around the same period of time. Their spaces were just internal-facing, making them invisible to each other. 

To me, the special qualities of Scott’s Addition are found in the forgotten spaces. Before the rise of the current “adult playground” and after the emptying of the warehouses, an in-between community took hold of the area. They are my community - people that have shaped this neighborhood and the city of Richmond with their own hands. It includes makers, artists, craftworkers, DIY groups, grassroots organizers, non-profits… this group is broader and more textured than any one of those words. So this mural is my attempt at creating an image to identify and recognize this kind of person. 

This group operates in transition - we visualize what the world could look like, how it could change, and what it would take to make that happen. Then we grab the world as it is with both hands and wrench, guide, encourage it into a new shape. Our impact on our surroundings are strong enough that we can’t stay in the same place - any place we’re in will never stay the same. 

The light industrial economy that has slowly cleared out of the neighborhood gave Scott’s Addition its form & structure. The businesses that are moving in are placemaking, public-facing, drawing in visitors and residents, summoning a new population. In between these two there has been a subtle ecology of creators, each one of a vertex where idea meets reality. Their work is the portal from internal to external, and from individual to communal. Over the last 10-15 years the constant adaptation of spaces in this neighborhood to be used as studios, workshops, galleries, etc make this the perfect place to showcase & demonstrate the role they play in bringing ideas to reality, which in turn change the world around us. 

How many inklings float by before one emerges as an idea? How many ideas do we puzzle with before taking it on as a project? How many projects stutter and halt before one flourishes as a pursuit, a product, an event, a group, an experience?  

The blank page, whether it’s a torn-out piece of notebook paper, a sketchbook page, a new document, or the iconic back of a napkin, feels like the 2D version of the empty warehouse. It’s a starting point, an empty place absolutely full of potential. 

Each distinct image on the wall is a little portrait of a moment, and taken all together they form a larger portrait of the creative process.

Scott’s Addition is not the only place where this happens, and I hope this work draws all of our attention to the value of leaving space for quiet chaotic creation all around us.

Inspiration

The initial request for proposals by Quirk Gallery for a new development project surprised me by fitting my own experience and interests like a glove. The client sought a mural representation of the “Industry of Scott’s Addition”, wanting to reflect the character of the neighborhood and fit in with the existing community there. 

The client’s suggested inspiration for the design was Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals, which are a staggering series of murals painted for the Detroit Institute of Arts to depict the grandiosity of the automotive industry. The spiritual images that Rivera created of humans and machines went far beyond even that technically complex goal, reaching for the deepest and truest depiction of what it means to labor. These murals were defining for muralism in North America, they led directly to the New Deal mural programs, and Rivera considered them to be his most successful work.

“Rivera created a grand and complex cycle of murals that portray the geological, technological, and human history of Detroit. He also developed an ancient context for modern industry rooted in the belief system of the Aztec people of central Mexico.”
- Detroit Institute of Art

This project is physically and conceptually the largest I have ever taken on. The subject matter of this design is very close to my heart & home, my identity, my interests, my peers & role models, so the challenge here is to create a work that is genuine and does justice to all of these things. 

While for many the history of this area calls to mind mid-size manufacturers and gritty commercial ventures, I recalled the more recent past. I’ve seen the industry of this neighborhood in the many dusty, cozy, scrap-filled and sun-washed spaces that I had visited as a part of the meetup group called RVA Makers. Our little non-profit connects people in the Maker community across Richmond by organizing workshop tours, and the majority of our events in the past few years had centered around Scott’s Addition. As part of the group since 2014 and president for the last 2 years, I was very familiar with the neighborhood as a hotspot for small-scale workshops and studios of all kinds. 

The images I’ve gathered here are not the typical scenes that one might memorialize - empty doorways, industrial fittings, demolition, safety equipment, heavy machinery, fluorescent lights, exit signs, wires, scraps, etc. All together, I want to share the behind-the-scenes impression that I’ve gotten through hundreds of studio tours - of big spaces with big potential, of hard work and vision, and the detritus of backstage experiments galore which have led to a precious collection of public successes. 

Viewers who look at these small pictures individually might not know what to make of them, but seen over time and as a whole I hope that they inspire reflection on how the unromantic parts of the creative process are necessary for how everything gets made.