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Writer's pictureAshley Rose

Eureka Street Art Festival

The Eureka Street Art Festival (ESAF) is a week-long, city-wide event that takes place each summer since 2018 in Eureka, California. The core mission of the festival is to create intentional, accessible art that enlivens public spaces, stimulates community revitalization, and attracts visitors to Eureka. The annual festival invites local and international artists to paint murals and create street art throughout Downtown and Old Town Eureka, creating a unique walkable and bikeable public art experience. The festival offers the opportunity to watch the creation of large-scale pieces of world-class art and allows the public to interact with artists through artist talks, daily tours, and special events. The festival culminates in a large block party to celebrate the completion of the art.

The 2020 Festival will take place from August 10 - 15, in the Henderson Center neighborhood of Eureka.

I am honored and pleased to announce that I was selected as an artist for this years festival. I will be painting a 30 foot sidewalk mural on F Street in Eureka, directly in front of The Diver Bar & Grill ! I'm used to working on relatively smooth surfaces, and so I'm looking forward to the new-to-me face of the concrete sidewalk; the surrounding trees have buckled a portion, but we'll just make it art-y.


Naked sidewalk-Not for long!

Downtown and Old Town Eureka are alive and vibrant with murals from previous years.


All the colors from my 2019 Strawhouse Mural




I'm excited to watch how the design shifts along the 30 feet of sidewalk; allowing the artwork to morph and complement itself in the change. I often start with an idea, and the finished project morphs into something completely different than I had imagined- Getting into the space of flow vs. force allows my truest creativity to shine through.














When I'm adding new designs to my website, I take the pictures in large batches, but rarely with the same backdrop. The small rendering of the mural proposal I created ended up being a great rainbow to show off some of my new earring creations.


Rough mural proposal-Rainbow flowers, of course!

The mini-mural is 30 inches to scale represent the 30 feet of sidewalk, and now adorns the top of my office door frame; everything is art. All twelve artists in this year's festival are located in California, several from Humboldt County. A diverse blend of art styles are being represented to be inclusive and expansive of our artistic community.

Mini-mural = Photo backdrop

New for 2020: The Native Mural Project will be unveiled during the 2020 Eureka Street Art Festival. This project was created in partnership with the Native Cultures Fund, the Humboldt Area Foundation, and a committee of local Native leaders.

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Four Local Native artists (Alme Allen, Carl Avery, Melitta Jackson + Julian Lang) have been invited to participate in this project, given space on one continuous wall, creating a large, impactful piece. The Festival is always striving to make Eureka's public art scene more diverse and inclusive. This large mural will be painted by local Native American artists to ensure their perspectives are represented in the local public art scene. We are grateful of the support of the Native Cultures Fund to bring this project to fruition.

Regarding the longevity of the murals: The nature of street art is temporary and ever changing, but the property owners agree to leave the murals up for 5 years, though some may be replaced before that, and others may stay up for longer. I can't wait to visit with you during the festival; Come find me on F Street August 10-15th!


 
 

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