Figure 8 — Elliott Smith’s year 2000 follow-up to his major label debut, XO — is the last recording the late folk icon released before an untimely death at the age of 34. It’s a fine album chock full of the optimistic-yet-somber lyrics and lush instrumentation that have drawn multiple generations of music lovers to Smith, whose lyrics have become just short of sacred to so many of his most-devoted fans.
The album can apparently get students through law school, too.
“My wife and I listened to a ton of Elliot Smith in law school while studying studying for the bar,” Josh Sheridan told CL. The 42-year-old attorney and his wife Dina loved the album enough to use it as inspiration for a mural on the eastern wall of their Tampa Heights law office. The piece — with swirling blue and red lines just like the Los Angeles mural featured on Figure 8’s cover — also features the smiling face of a cute kid and the quote, “Hate cannot drive out hate…only love can do that.”
The mural’s quote was adapted from a viral fake quote, which was tacked on to a passage from an actual 1957 sermon Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. gave on loving your enemies. The cutie pie came into the picture, literally and figuratively, at the hands of Aaron Tullo, a 29-year-old born-and-bred St. Petersburg-er, ex-minor league baseball player and graduate of the University of South Florida. Tullo and Sheridan said they were inspired by Shepard Fairey, and that the original idea started out as a collage of faces which they hoped would reflect the diversity of the neighborhood. That became time and cost prohibitive, and a smiling kid became available, which made the change a no-brainer.
“Aaron mentioned his friend’s daughter who is absolutely adorable, and everything just clicked,” Sheridan, who has been practicing law in the area for for more than a decade, added.
Tullo — whose work can also be seen at Fortunato’s in Pinellas Park and at St. Pete’s Plotnick Law on Fourth Street N. — was not necessarily inspired by the Elliott Smith album, but he is a fan of “great music and great art and progressive thinking.”
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The piece took just over a week to paint and was coincidentally completed on Martin Luther King Jr. day. It’s the second Tampa Heights mural to immortalize a rock star in the last few months and sits just a mile-and-a-half away from Cam Parker’s Lady Gaga mural at Robertson Billiards on Franklin St.
“We wanted a message of hope and unity and diversity. The little girl, the smile, colors, quote…those seemed to tie in everything about the what is great about the community and what can be great about the country,” Sheridan said, adding that the Seminole Heights killings were happening as he and Tullo conceptualized the piece.
“With so much fear and anger, we wanted something positive for the people.”
Visit the mural at 3302 N. Tampa Street. Take heed of the quote by volunteering at nearby nonprofits like Trinity Café or Metropolitan Ministries. Listen to ‘Figure 8’ below. See what’s left of the original Los Angeles mural on Instagram.
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.
