Carole Devillers
This year’s St Petersburg SHINE Mural Festival returned to its roots with SHINE Origins, an all local lineup that included a mix of emerging talent and well-established Tampa Bay muralists artists who’ve been part of the festival since it launched in 2015. Here are photos of some of the newest additions to St. Pete’s collection of vibrant public art.
Carole Devillers
Covering two building walls on the 600 block of Central Avenue, surrealist artist Isac Gres’s “The Taste of Creation” is an impressive large-scale mural filled with symbols dear to Gres.
Carole Devillers
Elevated by a boom lift, Isac Gres adds touches to his mural “The Taste of Creation” while Taylor Smith, aka Dreamweaver, is on another lift busy creating her own giant masterpiece on the 600 block of Central Avenue.
Carole Devillers
Taylor “Dreamweaver” Smith works on her large-scale mural on the wall of Vernis & Bowling. Over the last decade, SHINE has helped transform St. Pete into an open-air art gallery with more than 170 murals throughout downtown and the surrounding arts districts.
Carole Devillers
A retired minor league baseball player, Aaron Tullo let his creativity loose and switched to mural art and graphic design for a living. His peacock mural, still in progress here, is at the historic Cordova Inn, the title sponsor for this year’s SHINE festival.
Carole Devillers
Dwarfed by her bigger-than-life hummingbird, Argentine-born artist Cecilia Lueza works on her eye-catching mural. Lueza likes the challenge of transforming large walls into public art displays. Her mural for SHINE covers the side wall of Haddy, the world’s largest 3D printing factory.
Carole Devillers
Returning to the ground on a boom lift, art teacher, yoga instructor, and muralist Sara Salem is no bigger than a fish next to her whimsical painting of a pelican, St Petersburg’s official bird, at Lake Michigan Credit Union’s St Pete branch. Local residents were able to help Salem paint the mural.
Carole Devillers
Johnny Vitale and Sionna “Sio” MacLeish’s mural at the Factory St Pete in the Warehouse Arts District pays tribute to St Petersburg and features, among other things, another iconic bird, the roseate spoonbill. Johnny Vitale also painted another mural on the 600 block of Central Avenue.
Carole Devillers
Muralist Derek Donnelly, the operations lead for this year’s festival, selects a color from his supply of spray paint while creating a scene from an imaginary adventure featuring a beloved family member.
Carole Devillers
Derek Donnelly’s contributions to this year’s SHINE are this painting of his son riding a pelican that’s gobbling a fish and a mural at the Hollander Hotel.
Carole Devillers
The creations of Brain The Genius, Amy Ilic-Volpe, Rebekah Lazaridis, and Karel Garcia span “Art Alley” on Seventh Avenue South at 31st Street. Other artists in the SHINE 2025 lineup include Elizabeth Barenis, Jenipher Chandley, Quinn Cale, and Reid Jenkins.
Carole Devillers
A prolific muralist whose work can be seen throughout St Pete and across the country, multi-media artist Carlos Culbertson, aka Zulu Painter, worked on two types of canvas to create his artwork of a Florida alligator for SHINE 2025.
For more information, go to SHINE Mural Festival