See also: Night & Day: Catch a Wavelength
Her pieces are made up of hundreds of hand-drawn lines, and lately she's been doing them on a larger scale, creating murals for Crema Coffee House and City, O' City. But her upcoming project will be the biggest she's ever taken on: a mural on a 120-foot wall behind Royal Drug, at the corner of Bruce Randolph Avenue and York Street. An area impacted by regular violence over the years -- 2012 saw the shooting deaths of two, with two more injured -- the mandala work will be a collaboration with local art students."A lot of things have happened here," Bayly says. "What we're really trying to do is to solidify this inspirational point for the community and have a community-building artifact -- something tangible." Friend and arts advocate Shaun Parkins connected her with funding for the public work through the Urban Arts Fund's 30 Murals Project. Beginning in mid-October, the two will help art teachers Marcy Mitchell, at Bruce Randolph Middle School, and John Goe, at Manual High School, lead mandala-making workshops for their art students.
From there, the students will head over to the wall to work on the mural directly with Bayly, using paint and wheat-paste techniques to brighten up the corner. "I really want them to take pride and ownership in what they do," says Bayly. "Part of what I do, and the reason I call myself Optimystic Arts, is that I never wanted my name to be associated with it -- I never want it to be about me. I want the kids to do this, and I want them to call it their mural."Be my voyeur (or better yet, let me stalk you) on Twitter: @cocodavies
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