Art to Street

The City of Darwin's Art to Street program is kicking in to gear.

Artist Tarzan McDonald is taking the reins as a producer to help local artist transform six walls throughout Darwin. Here’s what she had to tell us about herself and the project.

Tell us a bit about yourself as an artist. Have you ever worked on murals before?

I’m a mixed media artist and predominantly a graphic designer. I have dabbled in mural art in Yogyakarta in Indonesia. That process made me realise it’s a possibility for me to branch out on to a wall as a graphic designer. 

Also having the opportunity to exhibit in the Darwin Lightbox series added a whole new dimension of how many different ways there are to create public art to a large scale.

Who will benefit most from being part of this project?

Emerging artists and artists who have a high interest in going big with their art, but aren’t sure about the process of getting their work out there.

It’s a super-exciting opportunity for artists to build their confidence and work through all the stages, from budgets to contacting building vendors, through to thinking about cultural awareness. It’s a super-supported space with a really lovely mentoring organisation.

The brief mentions ‘thinking outside the box’ - what are some examples of this?

There’s one wall where there’s the possibility that rather than painting it, it could be a process of elimination and using a water blaster to get rid of dirty areas, like stencil art.

We want to see a large scope of different artists and there are means for adaptation of your artform to get it on the wall.

How do people get involved?

Keep an eye on our City of Darwin website. We will send out the EOI shortly. We also strongly encourage you to come and participate in the Proper Creative led mural at Seabreeze Festival and paint Nightcliff Seawall on May 11, please bring along two pieces of of your art, sketches, paintings or murals.