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'Swan Dive' Mural Comes To Life In Avondale

Ron Rothberg/RonRothberg.com
A detail of the "Swan Dive" mural

 

A new piece of public art is coming to life in Avondale, thanks to some Douglas Andersongraduates and resident Ron Rothberg.

The mural, titled “Swan Dive,” will incorporate an augmented reality, or AR, component, meaning viewers can view animations come to life with their smartphones, some of which will provide clues as part of Figment Jax’s socially distanced treasure hunt.  

The project was spearheaded by artists Corey Kreisel and Ramses Allen, who are painting it along with Hanna Hadzic, Jamie Shoemaker, Maaseal Outley and others.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of their summer plans had been wiped out. So, when the artists asked Rothberg about creating a piece of public art on his 140-foot fence near Park Street and Talbot Avenue, he agreed.

Related: Local, State, And National Coronavirus Coverage

On WJCT News’ First Coast Connect with Melissa RossTuesday, Hadzic said, “Ron previously wanted to have multiple artists work on this fence. And we were like, ‘We could be those multiple artists,’ so we approached him with sort of a plan.”

 

Ron was adamant about Avondale’s 100-year anniversary being incorporated with the storyline, she said. 

 

Credit Corey Kreisel
An image from the project's Kickstarter page

She said the team used a peacock that had previously been painted on the fence as a jumping-off point.

“We're coming in, sort of extending that peacock so it can be a unifying piece, and the feathers from the peacock extends and curves around a figure that is swan diving and being met falling into a bed of feathers,” Hadzic explained. “And as those feathers continue and they transform into a night sky and you go into this theme, where there are these large trees and Florida fauna, and a mandala as a sunrise in the center, and it's encapsulated by another tree, and that tree extends with more Florida fauna to a swan, and the swan extends to a larger wave. And the wave extends into a sort of a sky scene, where the statue of Life in Memorial Park is right at the end, and it's sort of circled around this Nimbus.” 

She said that one image reminds her of the famous photo of waves crashing into the statue after Hurricane Irma, a visual representation of perseverance. 

“It's a pretty long mural. It has an entire storyline to it, and once it's finished, there's going to be a poem that actually goes along with the mural that explains the storyline, explains Avondale's perseverance and, you know, explains the journey,” she said. 

Rothberg said the community’s response to the mural has been incredible.

“People come by and it's been 100% positive support,” he said. “People saying thank you, people putting a couple of bucks in a jar, to say how much they appreciate it. But I think one of the things that we saw was on this street during the quarantine, we saw so many more people watching it, so many more people biking, and we just saw so many more of our neighbors. And so this project really made that stroller, that bike ride so much better…” 

He went on, “For us, we're all just caretakers of these pieces of property, and to be in a place like Avondale where these homes are 100 years old, for us to put something there that will be there when we're not here is really impactful.”

Hadzic said the group has seen first hand: “Public art has been just a driving factor that connects and grows community. And that's a really strong theme that we’d like to pursue in terms of where we want to go, with not only mural making but just art in general and how we can grow that community through it.” 

The mural itself should be completed soon, with the AR components being added after that.

 

Heather Schatz can be reached at hschatz@wjct.org or on Twitter at @heatherschatz.

 

Heather is the senior producer of WJCT 89.9 FM talk shows including First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross, the Florida Roundup and What's Health Got to Do with It?
WJCT INTERN - SUMMER 2020