Mural for Long Beach Walls

Renaissance High School for the Arts

Long Beach, California
July 2025

This summer I painted my first public mural as part of the Long Beach Walls festival. The mural spans more than twenty feet across the exterior of Renaissance High School for the Arts in downtown Long Beach.  

The piece centers around an oversized amethyst gemstone held in gold prongs, referencing the school’s purple and gold colors. I liked the idea of creating something luminous and jewel-like for a place where young artists pass by every day.

Most of my work happens quietly inside the studio with tiny brushes and slow layers of paint, so working outdoors on a scissor lift felt completely different physically, mentally, and emotionally. It was intimidating at first, but also strangely freeing. For one week the city became the studio.

What made the experience especially meaningful was the timing. The mural was completed during the same week as the opening of Garden of Eve, my first solo museum exhibition at Long Beach Museum of Art.   Between the exhibition and the mural festival, I spent the week moving between museum walls and public walls, which felt symbolic in a way I’m still processing.

Long Beach has become deeply connected to my practice over the last few years. There is something generous about the art community here — artists painting beside one another, students watching the process, strangers stopping to talk about color, plants, gemstones, or painting techniques in the middle of the street.

I grew up attending an arts high school myself, so creating a mural for students felt unexpectedly personal.

If you’re in Long Beach, the mural is located at Renaissance High School for the Arts at 235 E 8th Street.