Sunny Dayz Mural Festival
By Kadence Morris
On Sep. ninth, 2023, Tulsa hosted the third annual Sunny Dayz Mural Festival on 325 S Quincy Ave, and the turnout was incredible! This one-of-a-kind event is meant for female and non-binary artists alike to get together and create, paint, and celebrate side by side. This year, 25 new murals were painted in the downtown area by a whopping 41 artists, who worked day and night for a whole week to get their masterpieces on the wall.
The festival was a day-long event that allowed vendors to come and sell their art and line the streets with tents, trucks, cherry pickers and the smell of tacos and sweat. Macrame, paintings, drawings, sculptures, clothes, food, drinks and much more were sold while a giant stage was being prepped for local performances.
The most amazing thing about this festival was the fact that three people from OHS were involved: the amazing AP art teacher, Mrs. Collins, and two of her AP Art students, Kadence Morris and Lily Baraga. Morris and Baraga were a part of the mentorship program within the festival, which paired each of the skilled muralists with one of the 11 students who applied and were accepted to participate in the festival.
Picture of Kadence Morris, taken by Kayla Morris
The mentees, alongside their talented mentors, got to learn from each other and create their art side-by-side. Together they helped each other come up with ideas for their murals, flawlessly executed their plan and supported them the whole way through.
As for what the mentees got to do while their mentors painted away, they received a shipment of a 30x6ft industrial-sized dumpster and were given the task of making it beautiful. Although the festival was open to the public from 12-8 p.m., the mentees showed up to start their murals at 8 am and worked in the heat, all day, to design the most stylish trash can known to man.
The mentees hit a bump in the road right from the start; upon arrival, they noticed that the dumpster was entirely black, even though it was supposed to be primed,white and ready to be painted. For these 11 talented artists, that was no big deal, and they went to work right away, working around and tweaking their designs to fit the shiny black background. From spray paint, to acrylic, to dragons, to birthday cakes, the dumpster was filled from head to toe with student creations and the outcome was better than ever imagined! After over eight hours of painting, it was finished and ready for its intended use…to hold garbage. Obviously, the murals on the walls aren’t going anywhere, but the dumpster is; where exactly will it be placed? Nobody knows.
The overall outreach to the community was successful, and Sunny Dayz, yet again, provided a beautiful space for adults, kids, artists, and random supportive parents to show up and appreciate art and its importance. Stay tuned for the Sunny Dayz Mural Festival in 2024 in Ponca City. Hope to see you there!