MURAL #15 "Formative Flora"

"Formative Flora" will be linstalled at the Utility Building at the Carolina Beach Lake at 598 Lake Park Blvd S. This mural celebrates the native plants and pollinators on the island.   

This mural is funded in part by the Grassroots Arts Program grant made possible by the North Carolina Arts Council and GREG & MICHELLE GHIA.

Rachel Rowse- Rachel has been creating, showing, and exhibiting art around the Southeast for the last 5 years. She graduated with her BFA from Appalachian State University in 2018. Recently, she helped with two large scale murals: one two-story tall mural at Novant Health’s neurological wing in Wilmington, NC, and one full frontal house mural at Walker World artist retreat in Leland, N.C.   

In her design, Rachel focuses on shining light on these plants to show the importance of the role they play in the landscape by focusing on perspective, allowing all the plants to feel larger than life. She will have the plants traveling back into a protective dune of sea oats headed towards an ocean scene in the background. Flying around the plants, the Artist has chosen to add several bees. Bees are a symbol of wisdom, rebirth, and protection. We have the bees to thank for these plants and many others as these plants would not be decorating our shores without their pollination efforts. Rachel plans on having her design wrap whimsically around all four sides of the building, focusing on painting movement into each plant to show the magic of the wind they live with. As the sky wraps around the building, she transitions from day to night to represent the fact that these plants bring beauty to the beach day and night.

The use of light is important as Rachel is a visually impaired artist with an eye condition called Nystagmus. This means her eyes dance back and forth, making it hard to see details unless she takes the time to observe them up close. The Artist takes any chance she gets to shine light on something small to help others find the beauty in them as well.  

This mural will not be painted on the building, but wrapped and then sealed with a poly that will maintain the integrity of the work and can be easily cleaned of any graffiti. 

Mural #15  "Formative Flora" is located at 598 Lake Park Blvd S., on the southeast corner of the lake.   

This mural was installed in June of 2023.