Sydney Merrill | The Crow’s Nest
By Courtney Amos
Amid the newest art pieces on walls across the city from this year’s SHINE Mural Festival, it’s hard to miss the mural that kicked them off: a colorful installment titled “Pride and Love.”
The festival, which concluded on Oct. 26, is an annual event that celebrates artistic expression while revamping walls across the city with extravagant murals from artists from all over the world. According to the event website, this local tradition started in 2015.
Jay Hoff was the artist honored with completing the first installment this season, finishing his Pride-themed mural on the same day as the Coming Out Day parade on Oct. 5, just a week after work on the wall officially began on Sept. 28.
Hoff, a local artist who specializes in projects that incorporate actual LEGO block and also does portraiture, adorned a building wall donated specifically for a community project. He was assisted by Chad Mize, an accomplished muralist in his own right, as well as a multimedia artist and local business owner.
“We knew we wanted it to be Pride-related,” Hoff said. He and Mize apparently tossed around a few ideas before landing on a design, of which the color scheme played an important role in conveying the meaning behind their work.
Ultimately, the final color palette was inspired by a combination of the pride and transgender flags, according to Hoff’s Instagram page.
“We thought Jay would be great for (the mural) because of the way the wall is,” said Mize. Looking at the wall, with its symmetrical block-like structure, it’s clear that Mize is referencing the vision of creating a mural that looks constructed out of LEGO blocks.
And of course, this is exactly what the pair did. Hoff designed the piece himself, going so far as to make an actual LEGO brick mock-up of the mural, which he planned to gift to the owner of the building they were working on.
The mural was broken up into what looked like individual LEGO pieces, an effect that was achieved using a special imprinting stencil that gave a 3D appearance. Using a paint-by-numbers system, each individual block piece was colored in.
Together, these LEGOs formed hands of different colors of the rainbow, with a large red heart in the center. On the final day of work, Hoff and Mize were busy doing the stenciling and finishing touches.
Though this piece was ultimately completed by the two, it was undoubtedly a group effort.
The previous weekend, the pair had enlisted help from a group of local LGBTQ youth from Metro Inclusive Health to assist them with the creation of the mural.
“There was probably like, 15 of them that came out…and then we’ve had friends come out and help us,” said Mize.
“This wall apparently, quite recently, was completely covered with vines,” Hoff said. “We gave it a new life.”
The finished mural can be found at 2437 Central Ave. in downtown St. Petersburg.
