About the Mural

This mural by Andrew Spear is one of three murals on a small, single-story building at 2260 1st Avenue South.

The mural faces west, toward 23rd Street South. It’s a bright blue wall 50 feet wide and 14 feet high, with gold, brown, green, red and white flames exploding in the center, around a grey blue double door. On the left, a huge white horse seen from the neck up, is thrust out of the flames toward 1st Avenue South.

The white horse is arresting, his mouth half-open, teeth bared, like he’s gasping for air as he escapes from the flames. His head is huge, the size of a small car.

On the right, two realistic elephants fly through the air. Realistic, except that they are pink.

The flames take up the left and center of the mural, leaving the elephants on the right flying over wavy wide stripes of light and dark blue. The flames are cut off at the top by the roof, and abstract, made of spots and blobs and leaf shapes. Gold flames rise like bulbous amoebas. Orange and brown shapes are stretched out high. The chaotic effect gives a sense of heat and movement, as if the mural’s capturing one moment in a powerful inferno.

On the right is a wide metal garage door. It’s painted as part of the mural, with one elephant surging toward it in mid-air, and the other elephant falling across the door, their long tusks pointing south.

Andrew Spear was voted best visual artist in Orlando after moving to Florida from Boston, and boasts big commercial clients like MTV. His work is motivated by music, movies and pop culture – a visual representation of his intense personality.

This mural is a tribute to his inspiration. The horse represents the daydreams of his youth, like horses on a merry-go-round. The splash of colors in the middle is the creativity and inspiration that drive his work. Spear’s transformation from a daydreaming child into a working artist, is illustrated with the realistic elephants. And of course, pink elephants also stand for celebrating a finished work of art with a visit to the bar.