The Happy Mural Project Kicks Off SHINE St. Pete Mural Festival

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The St. Petersburg community can take a break from election and coronavirus stress starting Friday at The Happy Mural Project that is a highlight of the sixth SHINE St. Pete Mural Festival.

Alyssa Everly, 29, and her partner, Braden Everly, 30, are the mural team who joined with St. Petersburg Arts Alliance to create the bright mural that represents people coming together as hands from different cultures hold sunflowers. The mural can be seen on the side of the St. Petersburg City Theatre building.

"The community has come together to paint what I designed as a color-by-number mural," Alyssa Everly told a Patch editor as she sat on top of a scaffold and took a break from painting. "People used to walk up to us at all the murals we've done around St. Pete, and just be in awe and see it as kind of an untouchable experience — something that they couldn't ever imagine doing. They asked so many questions about the hows, how do you get this scale, how do you paint proportionately so large, etc., etc. So we wanted to do something that would bring people together and united everybody in kind of the same effort to create something really beautiful."

The project started on the morning of Halloween, and Alyssa Everly said since then people from all over the community have picked up a paintbrush and helped bring happy to the outside of Florida's oldest community theatre, established in 1925.

David Caras, 57, volunteered on Thursday morning with his guide dog, Bobb, so they could take a break from the world's problems. As Bobb relaxed in the shade under a table and enjoyed pats and rubs from others, Caras worked on painting a fingernail on the wall.

"There's a lot of stuff going on right now and it's negative," Caras said. "Politics, a lot of violent protests, a lot of anxiousness throughout the country right now, and this is something that seems where a bunch of people get together, get along and not judge each other."

Braden Everly said this is the sixth wall in The Happy Mural Project that they've painted sunflowers on. Its purpose is to spread happiness.

"The Happy Mural Project Hands Of Change" wall, 4025 31st St S, kicks off the SUNSHINE St. Pete Mural Festival at its unveiling at 4 p.m. on Friday. The festival features multiple Florida-based artists that will be at different St. Pete buildings working on murals during the seven-day festival.

Full information about the festival is found at SHINE St. Pete Mural.