Nothing wrong with getting a little help from friends. Tes One, aka, Leon Bedore and one of the organizers of the SHINE Mural festival in St. Petersburg, is getting help from Tampa friends tonight. Pep Rally Inc., the dynamic artist duo of Jay Giroux and Joshua Pearson, will be in the Burg this evening to compose a mural as part of the ongoing downtown-wide art festival this evening.
“We jumped at the opportunity and were flattered to be part of such an impressive roster of artists,” says Pearson. “Noticing that we were the only Tampa artists in the festival we wanted to show St. Pete what Pep Rally Inc. is about; Pulling all walks of people together through art. We immediately reached out to Green Bench brewing co to do an event around the mural and the partnership was born.”
The wall they’ll be taking over is across from the beer garden, where a mural of an alligator was started but never finished.
“It’s long and narrow so we thought why not a gator!” Pearson said. “But we want public art to spark conversation and through a brainstorming session over beers at green bench I found an image of a butterfly on the snout of a gator, I discovered that butterflies rest on gators because it is the only place they are safe from predators. The beautiful symbolic image of a delicate butterfly finding safety inches from one of the most deadly jaws in the animal kingdom sparked our imagination and I got to work on the sketch.”
Along with the mural, Pep Rally Inc. will sell a limited edition print that will only be available at the mural unveiling show tonight. They will also be showing a time-lapse video of the mural being produced and will give a talk about their process at 8 p.m. The event is in the beer garden at green bench Sept. 5, 7-11 p.m., with Jimmy Sliders food truck and spins by Dj Mega. Here’s Pep Rally’s Facebook event page for more info.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.
