Bike Mural Project(City of Atlanta: Westend Location)

From the projects proposal. “In childhood, when first learning to ride a bike, the task appears impossible; two skinny wheels aligned straight, attached to a thin metal frame from where two pedals for our feet and handlebars for our hands stick out the sides. Atop, a small seat where we sit and are supposed to believe that this contraption will carry us to places we aren’t even sure exist. We approach the challenge with nervous determination. Unbalanced and unsure, the resolve to ride a bike only present because somewhere in our short lives, we’ve seen it done before. During the process, we fall, we give up, we repeat. Then, suddenly, as if no failure had ever been committed, it clicks. Precipitously and without ceremony, we become ‘ridahs’. A new world opens before us and we find ourselves traveling unknown roads, through neighborhoods where we didn’t grow up, to discover places we had only seen from backseat car windows or in storybooks. Like our first steps, riding represents a means to satisfy our exploratory curiosity and unlock our imaginations. It’s our first brush with freedom, and a lesson that glory is found on the otherside of challenge. It reminds us that, with the right tools, our imaginations can become our realities. For many of us, these bikes would become cars and planes. For others, bikes would become computers, or paintbrushes- each a tool by which we discover greater potential within ourselves.”