Bland power boxes now sport colourful kingfishers, monarch butterflies, and cows wearing sunglasses, and a woman surrounded by hibiscus flowers and fish representing Papat\u016b\u0101nuku covers the wall on Masonic Lane. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s now a typical Kiwi holiday scene on Barbeque BOI\u2019s building, and a huge t\u016b\u012b and kerer\u016b on Hospice Mid-Northland\u2019s building on Hobson Ave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel driven to do it,\u201d Pearce said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I wonder why, when I\u2019m battling all the weather elements trying to get it done. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically just to brighten up the world; there\u2019s enough chaos going on in our world right now. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has such a positive impact on people. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are coming up to me the whole time sharing their support \u2013 people from all walks of life.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kerikeri Laundry Services owner Michelle Poole was getting fed up with tagging on the wall by her business. <\/p>\n
After the fourth time she was approached by a trio of local lads \u2013 who call themselves Creative Can Control \u2013 asking if they could create a street art mural. <\/p>\n
The mural merges their artist names and a huge washing machine monster with soap suds. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey came into the laundry and said \u2018would you mind if we put street art on there, it could take care of the tagging\u2019, and I said \u2018yeah\u2019,\u201d Poole said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said I\u2019d have to ask the landlord and he said, \u2018Michelle go for it\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely love it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have different art round Kerikeri and I\u2019ve had nothing but great comments about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Creative Can Control artist Taru Hedger, his mate Miles Toto and another friend created this street art mural on the Kerikeri Laundry Services building.<\/p>\n
Creative Can Control artist Taru Hedger, his mate Miles Toto and another friend have been leaving their mark around Northland for a while. <\/p>\n
A house-painter by trade, Hedger also worked with Hone Tiatoa from Impact Northland on the Kerikeri skate ramp as part of the Far North District Council\u2019s Kerikeri Domain Revitalisation Project. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started as a teenager; last year I did some mural workshops with Moerewa school, and that kickstarted Creative Can Control. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just been putting ourselves out there, doing a few murals over the last year.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hedger and co have also completed artworks at Club Physical gym in Kait\u0101ia, a tyre shop in Awanui, and a Coopers Beach hairdressers. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a passion of ours. We\u2019ve enjoyed graffiti art our whole lives. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe enjoy bringing something bright and new to Northland, and it\u2019s another thing to put our creativity to.\u201d <\/p>\n
Taru Hedger and Hone Tiatoa worked on the Kerikeri skate ramp for the Kerikeri Domain Revitalisation Project.<\/p>\n
Two of Pearce\u2019s murals have been commissioned by Our Kerikeri Charitable Trust. <\/p>\n
Chairwoman Annika Dickey said they brighten up the town. <\/p>\n
\u201cErika\u2019s art is beautiful … it resonates well with a lot of the community. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool to see the momentum building, and the growth of public art.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pearce, who has painted in Hosier Lane, Melbourne\u2019s most famous urban art destination, said street art is \u201cfor everybody\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cTraditionally art has felt inaccessible because it\u2019s confined to stuffy galleries. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut street art in the public is accessible to everyone from all walks of life. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can make a grotty alleyway that no woman would want to walk through completely different by covering it in art. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s becomes a destination rather than a place to avoid.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pearce plans to organise a street art festival in Kerikeri. Photo \/ Jenny Ling<\/p>\n
Street art festival<\/p>\n
Erika Pearce has worked with councils, schools, businesses and home owners on murals and artworks across New Zealand and around the world.<\/p>\n
She has also been involved in numerous street art festivals run by South Sea Spray, Southland\u2019s mural and street art movement.<\/p>\n
Now the 39-year-old is planning a street art festival for Kerikeri.<\/p>\n
Pearce wants to \u201ccarefully curate\u201d world-class and local artists to work on bare walls around town in March 2028 or 2029.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d all create murals at the same time, and there would be walking art tours while they\u2019re working,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor small towns the festivals have huge positive impacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could paint the town red – and white, blue, and purple and everything in between – and tell local stories as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
A typical Kiwi holiday scene is plastered on Barbeque BOI’s building.
A cow on a power box.<\/p>\n
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bland power boxes now sport colourful kingfishers, monarch butterflies, and cows wearing sunglasses, and a woman surrounded by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1228,4914,103977,156,16571,440,14852,111,139,69,5424,223,2951],"class_list":["post-641599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-art","tag-artists","tag-brighten","tag-entertainment","tag-kerikeri","tag-local","tag-murals","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-street","tag-the","tag-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}