Tampa Bay's must-see murals, and the stories behind them

100 Years Before J. Cole tells the history of the Pinellas Trail in Downtown Clearwater

620 Drew St., Clearwater
You’ll find Tony Krol and Michelle Sawyer’s “100 Years Before J. Cole” alongside the Pinellas Trail, near where Drew Street intersects with North Garden Avenue.

The mural tells the history of the Pinellas Trail, once Peter Demen’s short-lived Orange Belt Railway. The Orange Belt provided a path for trains delivering Florida citrus, vegetables and passengers across central Florida before the Great Freeze in 1894-95. It became part of the Plant System in 1895, then Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The train delivered passengers up and down the east coast before Amtrack took over in 1971 and discontinued passenger service to Pinellas County in the early 1980s.

Bert Valery and then-County Administrator Fred Marquis launched plans to convert the extinct railway to a bike trail after a car struck and killed Valery’s son while riding his bike down Belleair Causeway in 1983. The first stretch of trail opened in 1990.

Nearly 30 years later, in 2018, Krol and Sawyer told the tale in paint. View “100 Years Before J. Cole” through the ARTours Clearwater app and watch that history come to life.
Photo by Jennifer Ring

MJ Lindo and Joshua Lawyer’s “After a While” sends a gator walking down Clearwater’s Franklin Street

710 Franklin St., Clearwater
MJ Lindo and Joshua Lawyer’s “After a While” is fun to look at when it’s not moving. But view it in augmented reality via ARTours Clearwater app, and suddenly that gator walks and talks.
Screenshot of Artours app by Jennifer Ring

DAAS’ “Ikebana” honors Clearwater’s sister city

710 Franklin St., Clearwater
Daas’ “Ikebana” is a colorful nod to Clearwater’s sister city—Nagano, Japan. Ikebana is the Japanese art of arranging flowers. And Daas (stylized “DAAS”) did a gorgeous job arranging flowers on the flip side of the building at 710 Franklin St. in downtown Clearwater. View them in augmented reality via ARTours Clearwater app, and the lilies bloom before your eyes.
Screenshot of Artours app by Jennifer Ring

Shark Toof provides one of St. Pete’s best selfie opportunities

687 Central Ave. N, St. Petersburg
Los Angeles-based graffiti artist Shark Toof created one of St. Petersburg’s most iconic and photographed murals in 2015’s inaugural Shine festival (stylized “SHINE”). Have you really been to St. Pete if you haven’t visited the bright red wall on the side of the old State Theatre (now Floridian Social), stood inside the shark’s mouth, and snapped a selfie?
Photo via cityofstpete/Flickr

Local artists remember Bill ‘Woo’ Correia on Central Avenue’s 600 block

2180 4th St., St. Petersburg
Tampa Bay artist and gallery owner Bill “Woo” Correira died at 43 after a five-year battle with brain cancer. But he lives on in the alley behind Central Avenue’s 600 Block, where local artists painted a “Woomorial” to honor their late friend.

“The night that he passed away is when myself and Christian Thomas and other awesome local artists went out and started painting his portrait on the side,” Donnelly told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The whole idea was to honor him like Biggie Smalls in Brooklyn.”

Woo was known for his paintings of fish.

“We had other artists come out and paint fish and aquatic life around him to try and commemorate his life’s work…” Donnelly told CL. “Last I checked, it was 40-45 different artists who contributed to that wall by painting some sort of fish on there to commemorate Bill in some way.”

The mural was a game-changer for Donnelly, who went from painting children’s nurseries, pop art, and pet portraits in 2010-2012 to getting enough mural commissions to become a full-time muralist.

“The Woo mural really propelled everything,” Donnelly told CL. “It got a lot of attention, and then I was able to actually have something to take to local businesses and say, ‘Hey look, we can do something like this on your wall.’”
Photo via Things That Make You Go Woo/Facebook

For the Love of This City is a love letter to Tampa’s OG neighborhoods

1001 N Florida Ave., Tampa
If Seminole Heights had an official mural, it would be Illsol and Michelle Sawyer’s “For the Love of This City” on the side of The Portico in downtown Tampa. All of Tampa’s original neighborhoods are represented in this, now iconic, mural. There’s a rooster for Ybor City, a two-headed alligator for Seminole Heights, and a star and halo for West Tampa around the rooster’s head.
Photo by Illsol/Michelle Sawyer

Café Hey mural remembers Tampa Heights’ history

1540 N Franklin St., Tampa
Tony Krol fondly remembers the Tampa Heights mural as the first large-scale mural he completed with Michelle Sawyer in 2015. The mural reflects Tampa Heights' history in the hands of its workers, in its old streetcars, and in the words of Tampa Heights newspaperman William Benton Henderson
Photo via Illsol/Michelle Sawyer

Tes One and Bask encourage Tampa to stay curious

800 N Ashley Dr., Tampa
It’s not easy to make a parking garage look good, but Tes One, Bask (stylized “BASK”), and the Vitale Brothers did a bang-up job when they painted downtown Tampa’s Poe parking garage in 2015. It took one month, a team of eight painters and over 175 gallons of paint to complete the Stay Curious murals, of which there are five. Together, they remind visitors to the Tampa Museum of Art and Glazer Children’s Museum to stay curious, dream big, reflect, play, keep learning, and experience the arts in downtown Tampa.
Photo via City of Tampa

“Diversity in Democracy” reminds St. Pete to get out and vote

556 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
John Gascot doesn’t exactly consider himself a muralist.

“I haven’t done that many,” Gascot told CL in a phone interview. “They’re physically demanding, so I pick and choose.”

But when the League of Women Voters reached out to Gascot to make a mural encouraging LGBTQ individuals to vote in 2020, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “Diversity in Democracy” features five individuals of varying skin tones and genders next to a selfie station with a speech bubble that reads, “I vote.”

“We have such a diverse city that I really wanted everybody to feel connected to [this mural],” says Gascot. “And if you don’t see yourself in that mural, that’s why there’s a spot for you to insert yourself in it and have your picture taken.”
Photo via cityofstpete/Flickr

Carl Cowden III’s Tampa Postcard mural welcomes visitors to the City of Tampa

1102 N Florida Ave., Tampa
There’s nothing particularly original about a postcard mural, but they’re fun, and that’s probably why the Tampa Bay area has so many of them. In case you ever forget, Cowden’s mural is there to remind you when you are in the City of Tampa. Not surprisingly, the city commissioned this mural. Cowden coupled his experience in sign painting with his love of art nouveau to create this beloved mural highlighting all the best things Tampa has to offer, from Gasparilla to natural beauty to historic streetcars and architecture.

Across the bay, Derek Donnelly welcomes you to St. Pete

330 Beach Dr. NE, St. Petersburg
Derek Donnelly was honored to paint Beach Drive’s first mural, which still stands on the side of Smith & Associates’ Beach Drive Real Estate office.

The luxury real estate offices have sponsored several of St. Pete’s best murals, including “Love Shines,” which Ya La’ford painted next to Donnelly’s St. Pete postcard mural in 2021
Photo via cityofstpete/Flickr

Derek Donnelly shares his ‘Sonshine City Kid’ with the world

226 M.L.K. Jr. St. N., St. Petersburg
When Derek Donnelly didn’t get a Shine (stylized “SHINE”) commission in 2022, he hosted a fringe mural festival, giving it the tongue-in-cheek title, Outshine. The festival provided a way for local artists to celebrate Shine season in Tampa Bay even if they weren’t one of the lucky few chosen to paint in that year’s festival. Donnelly, who became a father in 2020, painted a mural of his two-year-old son on the back of Planet Retro based on his popular “768 Days of Sunshine” mural. In “Sonshine City Kid,” Donnelly’s son Syre wears sunglasses reflecting a Florida sunset, just as his niece had in “768 Days of Sunshine.”
Photo c/o Derek Donnelly

Flashback to your childhood with 1970s-1990s pop nostalgia in St. Pete’s Edge District

269 16th St. N, St. Petersburg
The big red dinosaur at on 16th Street made a lot more sense when the building was a toy store back in 2019, but Cultosaurus the toy store now lives on Central Avenue. Cultosaurus the mural, which features “Ghostbusters,” “Planet of the Apes,” and Mad Magazine imagery, is a tribute to 1970s-1990s pop culture that we hope stands the test of time.
Photo via cultosaurus/Facebook

“Time to Think” reminds St. Pete to stay creative

501 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
One of Derek Donnelly’s favorite mural projects is his 2014 collaboration with Sebastian Coolidge, “Time to Think.” If you’ve ever approached Florida CraftArt from behind, there’s no missing the giant business person these two created. The two artists were paid hardly anything for this mural. “It was pay for paint. We were just trying to get our names out there,” says Donnelly.

In lieu of a big paycheck, the duo did a deep dive and exercised their artistic freedom to develop a fantastic concept for this building. “The idea was to [depict] these businesspeople kicking off their shoes at the end of the day and really honing into their creative spirit,” Donnelly added.

In a town like St. Pete, anyone can be creative, and “Time to Think” reminds us of that every time we walk or drive past.
Photo by Jennifer Ring

The OG Mize murals: Twiggy and Mr. Sun

648 1st Ave. N, St. Petersburg
Two of the first, now iconic, Chad Mize murals sit right next to each other, tucked in a downtown Central Avenue alleyway behind Mize’s first gallery in St. Pete. Mize painted “Starry Eyed,” a minimalist tribute to British fashion icon Twiggy, behind Blue Lucy with Phillip Clark and Nikolas Kekllas in 2014.

Later that year, Mize revived Griffin Advertisting’s 1940s Mr. Sun character and painted its updated image (with Nikolas Kekllas) against an electric blue background. Mr. Sun’s iconic bright yellow smiling face has since traveled all over St. Pete—into private residences, Cycle Brewing, the cover of Tampa Bay Business Journal, and everywhere in between via the SunRunner. The official city mascot may be the brown pelican, but Mr. Sun is the pelican’s unofficial sidekick.
Photo via cityofstpete/Flickr

Jay Hoff and Chad Mize bring pride, love, and legos to St. Pete

2437 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg artist Jay Hoff is known for making fine art from legos. In 2019, he created his first mural with Chad Mize and area LGBT youth. The Lego-inspired wall features a big red heart surrounded by hands in every color of the Pride flag. Pride and murals are a big part of what makes St. Pete great, and Hoff’s “Pride and Love” brings the two together in St. Pete’s Grand Central District.
Photo via cityofstpete/Flickr

MacFarlane Park murals pay tribute to West Tampa’s history

1700 N MacDill Ave., Tampa
In 2005, the City of Tampa commissioned Tampa artists Edgar Sanchez Cumbas and Guillermo Portieles to paint a mural on West Tampa’s historic MacFarlane Park. “Kaleidoscope: A Heritage of Color,” tells West Tampa’s history through its people. From left to right, Kaleidoscope shows us the people who made Tampa—civil rights activist Robert Saunders, women’s rights activist Luisa Capetillo, Cuban nationalist Jose Marti, West Tampa founder Hugh Macfarlane, and Fernando Figueredo, the first Mayor of West Tampa.
Photo via City of Tampa

Cumbas returned to the park in 2022 to restore “Kaleidoscope” and further tell West Tampa’s story through its love of sports. In a second mural, “Measured,” Cumbas and Jay Giroux depict West Tampa boxing legends Fernando “Ferdie” Pacheco, M.D., and Joe “King” Roman on the western facade of the MacFarlane Park racquetball courts.
Photo via City Of Tampa