About the Mural

This mural by The Happy Mural Project is at 4025 31st Street South, on two walls of the St. Pete City Theatre. A diverse array of enormous hands are holding giant sunflowers.

The murals are 11 feet high, and wrap around the front left corner of the building. The mural on the front is 40 feet wide and faces east, toward busy 31st Street South. The one around the left side is 27 feet wide. It faces south, toward a small side parking lot.

The background of both murals is four horizontal bands of blue. The deepest blue is at the bottom, fading into pale light blue toward the top.

On the front wall, to the left of the main entrance, a row of six enormous hands rise up from the ground, each holding a giant gold sunflower. The pointed petals are deep gold at the center and lighter on the edge. And they’re realistic – they’re not always uniform, some petals are bent, or floppy, like a real sunflower.

The six flowers point in six different directions. Most are looking up, toward the Sun. But one near the center is facing you. And the flower on the far right, looks back at the other flowers.

The hands that hold the sunflowers are painted from the wrist up, and hand is different. The wall includes a mix of skin tones – browns, white and Black – and a mix of genders and ages. A child’s hand is on the far left.

The mural continues around the left corner. On the left half of this wall is a large rectangular white card, framed on top and bottom by delicate green ferns, as if it’s held in place by the leaves.

On the card in blue is the John Lennon quote, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” “I’m a Dreamer” is larger, painted in flowing cursive letters.

On the right half of this wall, two hands are clasped together – one Black, and one white, fingers interwoven in a moving gesture. These hands hold three giant sunflowers. The flower in the center points at you, and the flowers on the left and right are angled in those directions.

Just below the right-hand flower is the signature of the Happy Mural Project – a gold vertical rectangle that’s visibly created by four stripes of paint – fatter where the brush starts and angling to a finer point as the brush runs out of color.

The words “the” and “project” are in lowercase gold letters. “HAPPY MURAL” is larger, in light blue capital letters.

The Happy Mural Project was sponsored by the Pinellas Community Foundation, and created during the 2020 pandemic by fine artist Alyssa Marie and her husband, Braden Everly. They create “paint-by-number” murals – drawing the outlines and and inviting other artists, and volunteers from the community, to help with the painting.

All their murals feature bright sunflowers, representing happiness, joy and love. As their website says, “We are showering the walls of this beautiful Earth with giant sunflowers. We are a passionate couple that believes that happiness is a choice and we want to help the world smile.”