The Value of Murals by Eric Schmiel

With December's First Friday a couple days away, I'm checking out YouTube for videos of and about art here in Richmond.  Much like Winston-Salem, NC, where I last lived, there's not a lot.  But there's some.  Much of that has to do with Richmond's murals and annual street art festival.  There are dozens of murals here, maybe hundreds, and most seem to have been made 4-7 years ago.  These murals were the first thing that made me think, "Maybe I'll stick around here a while," when I landed here sort of accidentally (or was it FATE?) back in August.  The big and spread out art scenes and BMX scene (where I got my start in creative work in the 80's) here drew me in more.  But it started by seeing all kinds of murals while riding the buses around.

Looking through the online videos, I stumbled upon this friendly sounding guy dropping some cool thoughts about the whole concept of murals.  So I deemed it worth a share.  Check it out. 

RVA Street Art Festival 2013

Murals, murals everywhere.  That started to dawn on me after I landed here in Richmond in August. As I wandered around on buses, I just kept seeing murals, and that's the thing that first made me think I might want ot stay here a while.  Here's a cool time lapse video of the 2013 RVA Street Art Festival. 

For those of you outside this area, basically everyone who checks out my blog, "RVA" is the official, or at least publicly accepted unofficial abbreviation for Richmond, VA.  It's on big signs and stickers and car window stickers everywhere.