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Murals are big business, driving tourism and traffic, capturing both attention and the character of their surrounding neighborhoods. They tell stories and are also an oversized message as themselves, revealing a gigantic commitment to the arts and artists.

Creating a mural can be a grueling project, and there is no typical day in the life of a muralist. The weather conditions can be hot — too hot — requiring safety measures to protect the painter from fainting. Or, it could be freezing out, and the muralist’s mobility and agility might be hampered by stiff fingers and puffy jackets. The process can be aided by projectors, computers and spray paint or be painstakingly analog, one brushstroke at a time.

Regardless of the getting there, the “Wow!” factor at the end makes it all worth it. On the following pages, explore the mural art of several UTampa alums. We think you’ll say, “Wow,” too.

Nneka Jones BFA '20

GIVE ME MY FLOWERS | 640 S. FLORIDA AVE, TAMPA

The “me” in this mural’s title is Mother Nature, and she has a message. In Nneka Jones’ painting of a smiling woman, her face is half-shielded by an umbrella-like shape. An explosion of gorgeous flowers is in front of her. Beneath and behind the beauty, waves graduate from a cool green to the warm side of the spectrum — a wake-up call, Jones said. “The umbrella symbolizes rain and sadness that comes with the reality of what’s happening to the climate,” Jones said. “But also, the change in color symbolizes the hope that we start to pay attention and preserve nature and celebrate it.” The 50-foot-tall mural on the Pam Iorio Parking Garage was commissioned by the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts with support from the city of Tampa and was honored at the Tampa Downtown Partnership Urban Excellence Awards in February in the “downtown collaboration” category.

Big fear:��Heights. Jones worked from a scissor lift for six days to paint “Give Me My Flowers,” an arrangement made more complicated by the slope of the pavement below. “There was quite a lot of thinking, critical thinking, that went into how we were going to level the base of the lift to make sure that I could get up there safely and be comfortable while I was working,” she said.

Drake Arnold BFA '09

PORTRAIT OF THE MODERN PSYCHE | 2380 NW 5TH AVE., MIAMI

Drake Arnold is just happy to be there, “there” being Miami’s mural mecca, the Wynwood Mural Fest. Back in the day, Arnold made it clear to event curators that he’d take any flat surface they had — “Just let me come down there and paint,” he’d say — and they usually found a spot for him, even if it was out of the way, facing the train tracks, where none of the thousands of festival-goers would ever walk by. But, given some real estate, he’d just go down there and paint, and by 2023’s festival, ingratiated enough with the organizers and skilled enough to demand attention, he earned a prime location, smack-dab in the center of Wynwood. “Portrait of the Modern Psyche,” in the large photo above, is his work for that year’s event, a representation of societal expectations versus “what we've all got inside of ourselves at some level,” Arnold said, “you know, this primal, animalistic-like rage.”

Big shot: When in front of a Drake Arnold mural, look for a 3D-printed QR code nearby, aim your phone camera, and step inside the experience. Arnold is a self-taught master of augmented reality, giving viewers of his art an added dimension of animation to explore, based on their own angle of observation.

Melanie Posner BFA '16

Carl Cowden III BFA '78

TAMPA POSTCARD | 1102 N. FLORIDA AVE., TAMPA

The gang’s all here: the minarets, the streetcar, the river, the water tower, the pirate ship, the palm trees. This one screams “Tampa,” making it a photo-stop favorite of tourists and locals alike. Artist Carl Cowden III has stated being influenced by art nouveau posters and a love for the natural environment. Commissioned by the city of Tampa’s Public Art Program in 2003 and refurbished in 2012, it’s easy to imagine a big “Wish you were here!” scrawled across the back.

Big league: Tampa Postcard mural merchandise can be found, like an ornament offered on the Visit Tampa Bay website.

Joe Testa-Secca '50

SYMBOLS OF MANKIND��| 1505 N. NEBRASKA AVE., TAMPA

Beloved Tampa artist and UTampa Professor Emeritus Joe Testa-Secca, who died in 2023, created this stone and ceramic mural for the façade of the Ybor City branch library in 1969. In 1995, the mural was restored, and when the Ybor City library was replaced with the Robert W. Saunders Public Library in 2014, the mural was moved about 20 feet to be placed on the façade of the new building. At 7 feet tall and 40 feet wide, the massive engineering effort required the wall to be cut and lifted in sections with a crane and construction crew.��

Big brain:��According to the library’s website, the symbols of many cultures on the mural are meant to recognize the great knowledge found inside the library.

Photo by Jessica Leigh