Two artists are painting the town red this weekend – plus green, blue and other colours in between.
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Mikey Freedom and Claire Foxton have been commissioned by Stockland to create a thought-provoking, 20-metre high mural in the centre of Shellharbour on Holm Place.
Both said their design brief was fairly open as long as they represented the region, its people and their lifestyle.
“Obviously it’s got to be positive and inviting,” Freedom said.
“I think it’s an awesome investment in culture in this area. There’s not a lot around here,” she said.
“You’ve got to have business and culture grow together, you can’t have one overtake the other; it’s a much needed injection of culture,” added Freedom.
It’s the largest mural Foxton has ever created and the first time she has worked with Kiama’s renowned artist.
“[My style] is realism, whereas Mikey’s is a little bit more abstract. I think our styles really compliment each other in that way, the yin and the yang,” she said.
“It’s a big learning curve for me … and there’s a challenge to get the proportions right.”
Freedom said often when two artists collaborate there was an “unspoken competition” despite working on the same project, but admitted there was a positive and infectious energy from Foxton.
Both agreed they’re excited to see the public’s reaction to their design once it’s finished on Sunday, August 28.
The mural will show a young girl surrounded by images of nature and the Shellharbour shopping and dining precinct.
It comes after Freedom vamped up West Wollongong in July with a colourful mural on the front of a doctor’s surgery.
He used large blocks of colour to depict a hand placing a flower in a woman’s hair, with the aim of infusing positive emotions into anyone who comes in view of the permanent artwork at 405 Crown Street.
Meantime Foxton is the painter responsible for a smaller mural in Oak Flats, across from the public school, of two hands.
She was also involved in Project Crown, an outdoor gallery in the Wollongong mall, painted on temporary facades while renovations to Wollongong Central were being undertaken.