Local artist’s latest mural project on Kahutia Street

WALL ART: One of four murals being painted on to the Kahutia Street roadside wall of the Cook Store building by (from left) artist Kelly Spencer and friends Ben Gonzalez and Chelo Pettirossi depicts a Tangaroa Maori god of the ocean-type character. They have been working on the colourful murals this week and by yesterday had completed three. Story on page 4 Picture by Liam Clayton

Gizzy Local — Gisborne's own events calendar and website — has initiated a project with local artist Kelly Spencer to design four murals on the Cooks Stores building in Kahutia Street.

“Gizzy Local has brought on six local creatives to produce a series of works which engage with local community and focus on subject matter that is relevant to Gizzy,” Spencer said.

Spencer had been talking with a group of local people, trying to find diverse views on what the ocean meant to them.

She was interested in knowing how people interacted with the ocean, why it was important to keep the ocean healthy and how it was important to them personally.

Everyone had similar answers, she said.

Spencer and a group of friends started painting the murals on Sunday and by yesterday had almost completed three of the four planned.

One mural is of a woman surfing. Another is a giant octopus in a rock pool. The third represents the ocean as a teacher, with a wise Tangaroa-type face coming out of the waves, she said.

She intends to include diving and waka ama on the fourth mural.

“I was hoping to put something into each of them that everybody can resonate with.”