Floralume
In 2017 I was awarded a $15,000 project grant from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) to design, coordinate, and create a light-based creative placemaking project with Hamilton - Lauraville Mainstreet. They wished to partner with an artist to create community identity visuals along a small business corridor that celebrated the neighborhood’s iconic characteristics.
After public workshops, a final theme of native plants was voted on due to the neighborhood’s concentration of master gardeners, farmers markets, and parks. I co-designed and installed a blacklight mural and storefront graphics with two local muralists, Hanna Moran, and Lindy Swan, to re-activate an abandoned gas station building on a lot the neighborhood used for farmers markets. An opening night festival featured local restaurants, and deepened interest in using the lot more regularly for markets and eventually, a commercial kitchen incubator for local chefs.
With the lot slated for development as a community kitchen, we used this project to promote and uplift the area's commitment to sustainability, farmers, gardening, bee-keeping, locally-owned restaurants and family-friendly activities. The workshop component gave families a chance to play with UV lights on their own; they collected leaves and plants from the area and created UV-reactive cyanotype posters that families could then screenprint with neon ink.
Materials: Black lights, Roscoe UV paint, acrylic paint, wood panels, spray paint, stencils
