Mural by Avery O Design at Fifteen15 Apartments in Austin is Perfectly Weird

Austin's known for it's charm, growing enterprise, and well, weirdness. Fairfield commissioned Avery O Design to create a local mural at the entrance of Fifteen15 South Lamar Apartments to represent the beauty and charm of the neighborhood right within our brand new community. We also sat down with the artist to get her take on the importance of public art, what this piece means to her, and why this 1,400-square-foot space is perfect for public art.

Watch Avery O Designs Create Our Perfectly Weird Mural

video by Naedaze Productions

Q&A with Avery from Avery O Designs

Q: What is depicted in this mural?

A: This mural has the 1515 logo and a giant fantastic pink armadillo and the prickly pear cactus, because this is Austin and we have to keep Austin weird. It's a prickly pear cactus specifically, because It’s very important to me that we represent that correctly - we don’t have the saguaro cactus here in Texas, that’s Arizona! Overall, I wanted to give a sense of place and a sense of personality. I want people to know that this is Texas, but it’s also weird Texas, so I made the armadillo pink.

Q: What’s your connection to Austin and how does this mural fit into the picture?

A: I’ve been here for about 15 years. Like many people, I came here and never left. It wasn’t meant to be permanent, but this city has such soul and personality, for me personally, it’s a city I fell in love with. Austin has so much life and vitality. The mural scene in Austin is certainly growing. It used to be mostly street art, but now people are really investing in it as a way to celebrate the vibrancy of the city. The city is doing a great job of investing in public art, but it’s also businesses coming into Austin, businesses like Fairfield, are giving back to the city and adding to the spirit and showing people something fun. And it’s really a gift to the city. Every time anyone invests in public art it’s art that everyone can enjoy.

Q: Why is this piece special to you?

A: I live right in this neighborhood where Fifteen15 South Lamar is located, and to me, it’s the heart of Austin (and the best part.) It was such a fun project for me to get to bring part of the life to the neighborhood. It's basically my own backyard!

Q: How does this mural compare to your other work?

A: This mural is my largest mural I’ve ever painted in both height and overall square footage. I was lucky enough to have a great crew – two fellow artists with tons of experience who are also great artists themselves. Thankfully we’re all comfortable with a lift! It’s been really exciting to paint this big. I love large scale stuff. It’s amazing how quickly something so massive can come together. This was 1,400 square feet!

Q: How do you go about painting something so large?

A: Fairfield reached out in need of a mural. It was great because they had a perfect design palette already determined, that had a fun, playful, casual vibe – just what I like. They had interior design and branding already determined, and they shared that all with me. So playing with that, and realizing we’re in the heart of south central Austin, I was able to come up with some design options using the bright color palette to play off the community logo. I do all my designs on an iPad, once it was ready to go, the next step was to project it on to the wall. We headed out at night, projected the design outline onto the wall and started tracing it out with markers. Then it was basically a paint by numbers situation.  We’d head out early before the sun got too hot!

Q: What was your experience like working with us here at Fairfield?

A: Fairfield has truly been fantastic to work with. My contacts pretty much gave me free range of design, which is really fantastic thing for an artist to get. It felt really amazing to be trusted as an artist. On site, the construction team was always available to help. When little issues came up – which always happens on a construction site – there was always someone to hook me up and take care of it right away.

Q: Why are you so passionate about community art?

A: Community art has so many purposes- it can be a celebration of somebody, it can be a protest, it can be a way to bring light to a topic, or it can just show an emotion. Make people happy. Bring joy. And that’s the heart of the murals I do. I want to bring joy to a space. I want something people can drive by every day or wake up to every morning that brightens their day. That’s why I use bright and fun color palettes. That feeling of happiness and joy can help tie a community together.