Meet the CB100 muralfest artists

Allison Victoria, a fourth generation local acrylic and visual artist from New Hanover County, grew up in the heart of coastal North Carolina. This local perspective informs and inspires her artwork, making each piece a vibrant celebration of our community and environment. 

Through her art, Allison seeks to inspire and connect with audiences, fostering a sense of pride and appreciation for our local culture and environment. 

Allison shares "Legendary Guardian: Cappy's Mermaid of Carolina Beach" will portray a majestic mermaid lounging on a surfboard, symbolizing her protective role for the Wildlife and the timeless beauty of Carolina Beach. Some say you can see the mermaid at sunset,but you have to look close to make sure it's not just another surfer catching waves!
Concept: The central figure of the mural is a mermaid embodying the protective essence of the ocean. The mermaid, with flowing hair and a graceful tail, is said to have protected the town for 100 years, laying on a surfboard while watching over Carolina Beach Wildlife below in the ocean. Some locals say they have seen her swimming with Cappy just as the sun goes down, but they swim away once they are noticed. 

"Sunset at the Pier" is a vibrant, dynamic design that celebrates the iconic Carolina Beach Pier at sunset. This piece will capture the magical moment when the sun dips in the west,  casting an array of colors that reflect on the water and bathe the pier in warm hues on the east. Always a beautiful moment. 

As a graphic designer with a passion for color, Anna aims to infuse this piece with bold, saturated tones that capture both the energy and tranquility of this beloved location.
The design will use graphic lines and shapes to create a sense of movement, mirroring the ebb and flow of the ocean. The sky will gradually transition from deep oranges, pinks, and purples to calming lilac, reflecting the one-of-a-kind beauty of each sunset.
This work will be completed with acrylic paint.

"Pollinators of Coastal NC"- Beka shares "My inspiration for this concept is to highlight five of the local butterfly pollinators of Coastal NC, in a setting that evokes a beautifully decorated butterfly display on a large scale. I plan to utilize my patterning techniques using hand cut stencils and professional spray paint to create a delicate patterned to “frame” the beautiful textures and patterns of our local pollinators in our butterflies, the COMMON BUCKEYE, the EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL, the VARIEGATED FRITILLARY, the SPICEBUSH SWALLOWTAIL, and the MONARCH". 

Beka Butts is an illustrator, maker, and muralist based in Greensboro, NC. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, receiving her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Illustration, Beka returned to North Carolina in 2010 to start her career as a local artist, working with small businesses and patrons as a freelance illustrator and muralist. Bekas recent focus on public art and murals has allowed the artist to travel to a variety of places throughout the country, finding inspiration where ever the work takes her, while striving to live like a local while on site. Beka seeks to create murals with a vast exploration of her illustrative techniques. These large scale works, executed in a variety of street art mediums, utilize traditional painting in spray and
bucket paint, vibrant color and design, intricate line work, and hand cut stencil layering to create realistic yet painterly works in her public art.

 Brooke Rowe is celebrating "A Coastal Carolina Birthday" with stamps that highlight some of the best our little beach town has to offer.   Brooke's entry includes a "Polaroid" image of a cupcake with some candles to indicate the 100th birthday of Carolina Beach The stamps include a sunrise and sunset with a pelican and the CB iconic lifeguard stand, along with a vintage pastel rendition of the boardwalk sign, the Ferris wheel, and of course, the Venus fly trap!  

Donnie has taken many titles in his career including designer, illustrator, art director, brainstormer, project manager, referee, and self-help guru . He thinks that it helps his ability to look at a project from many different perspectives. 

Donnie writes "I had fun participating in the Boards Across CB event and wanted to do more work with your group. *I sell my work at the Farmers Markets during the Summer.  I subtly added "CB100" to one of the surf boards in this piece "Surfing Safari". I wanted to note this anniversary but not make it too obvious". 

Georgia is a student at Carolina Beach Elementary School. She will be working with her CBES Art Teacher, Melony Connor, on her first public art piece at the CB100 MuralFest. 

Inspired by her love of beach, fun & sun, "It's a Shore Thing" hits all the retro vibes. Gina Franco is a full-time Greensboro-based artist living. You may be familiar with her past work in Carolina Beach, including Mural # 6 "This Must Be the Place" as well as the Centennial Whale "Maggie". 

 Jorie's dynamic and thought-provoking "CB Tides of Time" captures the evolution of life and time in Carolina Beach, NC, weaving together history, nature, and surrealism in a bold and electrifying display. This piece honors the deep-rooted past while celebrating Carolina Beach’s centennial as a vibrant destination for families, surf culture, and coastal beauty.  

A CB local Artist, Jorie has honed her artistic skills over her entire life. For over two decades she has built a career as a professional makeup artist, gracing the stages of Broadway plays, television shows, and movies. However, she recently rediscovered her passion for drawing and painting and this marks her first time applying for the Mural Project. 

Jorie is a devoted mother of two young boys, whom she nurtured with an appreciation for art and creativity from their earliest days. Their budding artistic talents suggest that creativity is hereditary.   

Lisa Gaither is a muralist/street painter withexperience painting hundreds of murals across the state and the US. She also participates in live events, festivals, etc. Lisa mostly paints permanent installations but also creates temporary works done in pastels and temporary paints/mediums. She is now living full time in Carteret County at the Crystal Coast, NC. Her "CB Egret"  will be painted with acrylic and latex using brushes/rollers.  

 Mar'Emilia Borja will install "Exist for Love" inspired by her favorite artist, Aurora.  

Maria Emilia Borja is a multi- media artist whose goal is to bring art to the public in the form of colorful, bright murals. "I have sketched ideas for many walls throughout the city. Painting murals is one of my artistic aspirations. Currently I work with fiber and printmaking, but my artistic abilities expand from sculptural work, including ceramics and bronze, digital media, as well as analog 2D mediums such as acrylic and gouache.   My illustrative style focuses of figures with bold features, bright colors, and emphasis on a diverse representation. I enjoy including flora and fauna, symbolism, text, and a true message in all of my work.  Street art has always been an influence of mine going back 15 years or more as a young artist exposed to graffiti art under bridges in the Midwest, to large community-based spaces when I lived in New York City in the early 2010's. The street artists like Banksy, 10 Hundred, Shepard Fairey and Miss Van have been the main influences of my artistic career and the ones who have inspired me to pursue becoming a muralist, specifically one that includes public art. Other influences and inspiration have come from Italian classical, European impressionists, and modern artists".  

  Where the Atlantic meets our shores, magic happens. The "Atlantic Mermaiden" concept emerges from that intersection of dream and reality, where the timeless grace of Art Nouveau meets the wild beauty of Carolina Beach. As we celebrate our Centennial, I envision a piece that captures both our heritage and our dreams – a mermaid guardian who embodies the spirit of our coastal paradise".  

The composition weaves together:
- Sinuous, flowing lines that mirror the gentle roll of our waves
- Organic patterns inspired by our local flora and marine life
- A luminous stained-glass effect that transforms with the changing daylight (metallic and refractive interference paint)
- A color palette born from our own sunsets, sea foam, and coastal flora

This won't just be another mural – it will be a love letter to Carolina Beach, a piece that makes locals proud and visitors pause in wonder".

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.  She is also the Artist responsible for Mural # 15- "Formative Flora" located on the Lake Pump House. 

For "Sands of Time" Rachel wanted to play with depicting a more surrealist image of an hourglass in the sand.

" nside the hourglass, I will have sea shells transforming into sand, dripping down into a sand castle with an ocean scene nestled inside of the bottom half of the hourglass. This image is meant to celebrate how over time, our cost transforms one kind of beauty into another just like how shells transform into sand." 

Sandra Kimzey Wimbish currently lives and expresses her creativity in Clemmons, NC. Her art celebrates the beauty of the natural world—people, animals, flowers, and landscapes. 

Using a variety of mediums, and often combining them, Sandra’s art pieces come to life with acrylics, colored pencils, graphite, and ink.

Two of Sandra’s current focuses are her American Wildlife series, which includes both ink and graphite works, and her growing Sepia Tones series of acrylic canvases.
Sandra has exhibited and taught art in her previous homes in Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and North Carolina. She devotes part of her time to creating public art including murals and mosaics. In 2024 she will created a large mural on a of City Hall in her Kansas hometown in coordination with their summer arts program. One of her other favorite public installations to create was the mural/mosaic combination she completed in 2019 at Laurel Hills Park in Raleigh, NC. "No Introductions Needed" is the title of the piece Sandra will be installing in CB. 

Susan Nuttall is a local mural Artist with more than 30 years of experience and a beloved Artist on the island. 

Susan has honed her craft to create vibrant and engaging artworks that transform spaces. Her portfolio showcases a diverse range of artistic styles, reflecting Susan's passion for bringing walls to life. 

 “Birds of a Feather” celebrates the diverse beauty of the birds on Pleasure Island. 

 Tess is inspired by local wildlife, life cycles, nature cycles, and innate animal drives and a desire to visually represent them with realistic and surreal styled symbolic elements.  

Tess shares "With over a decade of experience as a freelance artist working with a multitude of artistic mediums and techniques, my creative journey is enriched by

extensive mental health-based training and didactic supervisory experience. This provides me with a uniquely enhanced lens through which to view the human psyche, creative expression, and the profound relationship between the two, which is subtly displayed through symbolic imagery within my artwork. Inspired by antiquated psychoanalytic theories, archetypes, and Jungian approaches to self expression, I create work with a goal to not only captivate viewers aesthetically but promote introspection through either wonder or relatability. Further inspired by graffiti and street art culture, my work is an empowering tangible representation of my human experience - blending thematic realms of existential inquiries, humor, surrealistic elements, and feminist perspectives, primarily through the use of aerosol and hand painting techniques. Each piece is a deliberate dialogue between the viewer and the artwork, emphasizing depth and intentionality". Her piece is titled "Tangible Dreams".

Trent's panel celebrates the beautiful trees at Fort Fisher that are a landmark of Pleasure Island. Titled "The Trees of Fort Fisher", the stark black and white presentation would focus attention on the natural beauty of the subject and the treasure that these trees are on our island. Trent will be drawing with black acrylic paint pens/markers.

Jude Watkins attends Murray Middle School and we are thrilled to have Jude participate in the MuralFest. 

Island Montessori students will be working together to create a piece of public art at the MuralFest.