JAYA KING
Venus
WEAVE
2024
Community Mural
WEAVE
2024
Community Mural
With support from the WEAVE and the California Arts Council, Juliet Elise and I teamed up on a unique mural project.
The vision for this mural is to create domestic violence awareness with the greater community through a public art piece. In addition to the mural, Sacramento survivors of domestic violence participated in a series of trauma-informed creative workshops centered around healing, empowerment, and mindfulness led by Juliet Elise. Community members were able to add their brushstrokes to the mural at our community paint day at a local farmer's market. This mural offers a large-scale, public expression of the strength, beauty, and fortitude of domestic violence survivors. This mural is funded by the Impact Grant from the California Arts Council.
About
WEAVE's mission is to promote safe and healthy relationships and support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and sex trafficking. WEAVE’s vision is that when everyone acts, violence ends.
WEAVE has created equitable opportunities for creative practitioners using art as a tool for healing and therapeutic engagement. Local opportunities to participate in communal creative healing are often limited on the basis of financial, social, or stigmatic factors, making accessible programs all the more crucial. Opportunities for creative programming are made inclusively available to artists of diverse backgrounds, skill levels, and cultures through WEAVE. WEAVE is our fiscal sponsor for this project and is funded by the California Arts Council Impact Grant.
Learn more about WEAVE and it's resources.
What is WEAVE
The significance of the imagery as it relates to WEAVE is directly inspired by my friend, Juliet Elise, a domestic violence survivor, community advocate, and partner on this project. The imagery is based in part by Juliet’s own artwork where she uses the venus fly trap as a symbol of feminine strength. The fly trap is also a powerful symbol of resilience, adaptability, and the courage to face life's trials head-on. The color purple is WEAVE' s primary brand color and a is a color used often to bring awareness to domestic violence. The stylized graffiti is a collaborative addition to the mural which adds more than just an eclectic design. It’s is an effort to externalize the internal experience of domestic violence victims through visual energy. The portrait conveys a quiet power and is modeled after my friend Juliet. My deepening awareness of domestic violence is thanks to her. Through this public art piece, it is my intention to further that awareness.
When Everybody Acts Violence Ends.
View Juliet's exhibition (and my inspiration for the mural) Behind Closed Doors. Watch her artist talk here.
A Personal Connection & Inspiration
The mural is painted on Polytab or "Parachute Cloth." I paint the mural in sections in my studio then my team and I apply the mural to the wall with a high-strength adhesive.
Project Press
Community Paint Day & Wellness Workshops
WEAVE clients engaged in several guided creative workshops aimed at building skills in art, wellness, mindfulness, and healing. Through activities such as collage, painting, and drawing. Alongside peers, clients found enjoyment and therapeutic benefit in their creativity.
One of the most rewarding parts of working with the community on a mural project is hosting a “community paint day” where members of the community can actively participate in the mural process through a paint-by-number format. I consider this participation integral in the community mural process because it creates a physical personal connection.
PROJECT PARTNER
Juliet Rodriguez
GRAFFITI ARTIST
Gabriel Lopez
ASSISTANT ARTIST
Nathan Cofield
Massive gratitude to these humans. Working with awesome, talented, hilarious, neurodivergent people makes it that much easier to wake up at the crack of dawn. You're the best!
Team
A lot of behind-the-scenes hours went into making this project a reality: HUGE shout out to WEAVE and especially Shante Johnson. Thank you also to Beth Hassett and Julie Bornhoeft.
Thank you to DeWana and Moka at WEAVE Thrift.
Thank you to property owner Mimi for being an insta-yes to our project.
The most giant air-hug and shouting-from-the-rooftops THANK YOU to Liv Losee-Unger, my polytab guru and incredible artist! (website / @ORLUarts)
A special thanks goes out to Joan Schubert, the California arts Council, and (as always) Behr Buddy Robbie and Home Depot West Sacramento