About the Mural

This mural by Erik Jones is one of three on this small building at 2260 1st Avenue South. It’s on the east side of the building, facing the parking lot and partly shaded by a large oak tree.

This mural stands out boldly, with a bright red base and bright blue, black and light green abstract shapes spreading 60 feet across and 14 feet high.

Wide gold curves arcing across the wall form half-completed circles that are painted to look as if they’re three-dimensional windows in the wall. Two circles frame huge and realistic women’s faces that are partially obscured by abstract shapes and colors.

On the left, a pale woman’s face, with dark, exotic eyes stares directly at you. Her expression is calm, and a little mysterious. Lines of blue and brown and green and shapes of pink and white cover her hair. While stripes of red, blue, green and gold dangle from her lower lip and down her neck. A bright blue dot is painted on her forehead, like a religious symbol.

On the far right, an African American woman’s face is partly covered by color. One half-closed eye gazes at you, curious. Her lips are parted, as if she’s about to speak. Her other eye is hidden behind a dark pink shape. A curve of light blue hides her hair. Clustered stripes of blue, green, purple and pale pink drip down to cover her cheek, heading toward rich orange and dark blue horizontal bands below her chin.

Three other golden arcs are filled with abstract shapes, views into a geometric city, with a night sky on the horizon in shades of smoky blue.

The abstract colors are bold and bright. The faces are ethereal and realistic. A thin white freeform line swoops around the faces and darts across the colors like a doodle.

A native of St. Petersburg and graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School, Erik Jones now lives and works in New York City. His paintings and illustrations have graced magazine covers, and he’s sold out art shows around the country.

This is his first mural. Erik’s style involves homemade inks and washes, and painting techniques he invented himself, so transferring those processes to a large-scale wall required the assistance of St. Petersburg’s Vitale Brothers mural painting team. The women’s faces were air-brushed and the colorful background was painted with brush and roller.