STL Street Artist Jayvn Solomon Reimagines City

ArtistsInspiration

Mar 3

Jayvn designed this colorful mural for Swade medical marijuana dispensary at 4108 Manchester Road in the Grove, St. Louis.

When I was in St. Louis in the summer, I ran by a beautiful Painted Black STL mural by local street artist @Jayvnize. I did not know later I’d get the chance to meet the artist and learn more about Loutopia, his incredible vision of how design and art could bring St. Louis to a colorful reimagining. In addition to Loutopia, Jayvn recently painted another beautiful St. Louis mural at 4108 Manchester Road in the Grove, pictured.

Loutopia brings a colorful vision of St. Louis to life.

Learn more about this creative visionary’s works and art in his interview here:

How long have you been an artist?

I've been an artist, I suppose anyway, since kindergarten. I started drawing when I was about 5 years old. I don't think I've put the pencil down since then!

What got you into art?

Cartoons were definitely what got me into art initially. I would watch Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network and think along the lines of, "this character looks so cool. I want to replicate that myself on paper"! Over time I kept exploring rendering what interested me in different mediums: cars, people, etc.

Are you from St. Louis originally?
Yes, I am from St. Louis!

What is Loutopia?
Loutopia is a series I started that visually explores the great potential of the cities we live in. Using St. Louis as the focus of this study, I take photos of existing buildings and spaces in the city and render an idea of how this space could additionally serve the area it's in. In each rendering I create, I always incorporate 3 things: (1) nature/greenery, (2) public art, (3) Alternate energy sources (environmentally sustainable tech). I chose these parameters because not only am I personally inspired by all of them but also because there are countless benefits to having all three of these things present.

In-part, I started Loutopia to engage in some quality creative exploration. Also, In the general scope of society, we as humans have no shortage of challenges with outstanding solutions. Loutopia, to me, is also an examination of how we could start to holistically chip away at these challenges we have.

What are you working on currently/this mural coming up?

What's sort of crazy is all of the work I've been doing has sort of stemmed from the Loutopia series. In April 2020, I rendered an idea of a remotely-live-streamed concert with Augmented Reality heavily integrated. At the end of January 2021, my creative partner and I very recently worked with a local rapper, Mvstermind, to design and host a real-life version that went very well!

I'm also working on a couple of public-facing murals here in St. Louis. I've got a healthy list of other things too but you'll have to follow along or stay in touch to learn more about those :).

What inspires you as an artist?

Hip Hop music and its culture have most consistently served as inspiration for me. Music holds a special place to me in general but I believe Hip Hop is the embodiment of innovation, culture, & creativity.

Another thing I'm into right now is biomimicry; studying nature to imitate it or use it as inspiration for designs or processes with the goal of solving human problems. It's one of the more "nerdy" things I keep tabs on but I'm also enamored by how things found in nature operate almost perfectly with little-to-no waste. We interact with so many products inspired by nature and we don't even know it!

Any vision for what's next?

If I'm perfectly honest, my vision is now a little more obscured and multi-directional in-context of the pandemic. I want to develop at least three real-life Loutopian case studies that are also covid-resistant, which is an interesting challenge to consider by myself. I've been collaborating with some great folks to cultivate even better experiences since the pandemic began, though. That said, I'd mainly like to keep that process going with people here in STL and even abroad. I've learned first-hand that collaboration, art, & design, among other things, are pretty serious tools for improving our lives. Whether it's Loutopia-related or not, I'd say my main vision at the moment is to continue to uphold that.

Where can we follow your work?

Instagram: @jvnize

Twitter: @stloutopia

Website: jvnize.com

Website: stloutopia.com

Feel free to shoot me a message!

Marnie Kunz is an RRCA-certified running coach and the creator of Runstreet Art Runs, which bring together communities through running and street art. She is a Brooklyn resident, Akita🐕 mom, running coach, and writer. She enjoys traveling, art, dogs, and eating messily. You can follow her running and events at @Runstreet Instagram and Runstreet Facebook.

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