Green Candy Art Series to Raise Awareness for Environment

With one hand silver from spray paint resting on her waist and an umbrella looped through the other hand, an Argentinian artist stands on a brick wall and overlooks the progress of her work for the public art program.A light breeze ruffles her dress, which was once black but now pops with color, as she smiles at her project for Green Candy, located on the side of a Dickson Street brewery.

Marina Zumi has been painting street murals for the past 15 years. She has not thought of a name for her newest mural yet, but she will when she is finished, she said.

Green Candy is an art-action program supervised by Experience Fayetteville, the city’s tourism department. In 2015, the governing body of Experience Fayetteville set aside money for the art project. In July, Experience Fayetteville partnered with JustKids to hire six artists to create large works of public art, said Hazel Hernandez, the director of marketing and communication for Experience Fayetteville.

JustKids is a global creative house created by Charlotte Dutoit that has been working to spread art throughout the globe with international art events and gallery shows since 2014, Dutoit said. JustKids was hired by Experience Fayetteville to manage the project Green Candy by finding and contracting local and international artists.

“When discussing concepts for a public art program in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the amazing connection to nature and the Ozark’s landscape stood out for us,” Dutoit said.

Dutoit said she wants Green Candy to go beyond intellectual knowledge and face the looming ecological problems in cities with creativity.

“As far as we know, there is only one (earth),” Dutoit said. “Beyond creating systems of production and consumption that are ecologically conscious, sustainability, to us, is a process of thought that involves creativity and should be developed and fostered by everyone, everywhere.”

Gina Gallina is one of two local artists participating in Green Candy, along with Jason Jones.  Gallina is an artist from Eureka Springs, who said she has been crocheting since she was eight years old. For Green Candy, she will be crocheting a six-foot inflatable strawberry to be placed in front of the Walker-Stone House. She said a project this size would usually take about three months, but the Strawberry will be created over the course of three weeks. The crochete will make up the shell of the project, and placing a large inflatable ball in the center to give it its shape.

Originally, Gallina said she was asked to create a project like her “Queen Bee,” an exhibit where a mannequin wears a bumble bee gown surrounded by yarn flowers and bees with a matching hive yarn wig to bring attention to the bees. The “Queen Bee” was not meant for an outside installation though, Gallina said.

“So Charlotte said, ‘Why don’t you just do a big piece of fruit?’ So I’m trying to put these bees on there,” Gallina said. “I hope I have time to do it, but it’s to bring awareness to the bees because we can’t have our fruit if we can’t have our bees.”

In the last year and a half, Gallina’s career has exploded after she was featured in Vogue Knitting LIVE, a show “filled with fashion, fiber and education,” according to the Vogue website.

Gallina said she is confident she will have her work done by Friday, but with only three weeks she is on an “espresso overload” and crocheting 13 to 14 hours a day.

“My hands haven’t hurt yet, thank God. This is probably a record time for me and a huge challenge,” Gallina said.

Artists from four other countries, including Zumi, will also be joining the project that began Aug. 17.

Zumi’s new installation on the side of Hog Haus Brewing Company symbolizes light shining through darkness. With a honeycomb pattern representing the diversity of people in Fayetteville and the importance of the bees and the environment, the installation is much like a previous work of hers on the side of an apartment building in Halle, Germany.

Jones, a 2000 UA alumni, said he has been painting since he was kid.

“I’ve just really been into art, (there wasn’t) really any other thing that I wanted to do. I knew from the get go,” Jones said.

Jones has completed over a 100 murals in Northwest Arkansas, according to his website. He has worked on murals in homes, businesses, and “whatever (he) can get,” Jones said with a chuckle. Students at the UofA may recognize him by his murals in the Arkansas Union and his “Enjoy Local” mural in downtown Fayetteville.

Jones latest art installation will be on the corner of 545 W. Center St. and the Frisco Trail. He plans to paint a large jack rabbit wearing a gas mask, breathing fresh air from a clear terrarium-like tank.
“It represents clean energy and fresh air,” Jones said.

A celebration in conjunction with the Fayetteville Roots Festival will be Friday at the Walker-Stone House on 207 West Center Street , Hernandez said.