CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It took Georgie Nakima seven years to really master her craft as an artist.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” she says. “There’s no overnight anything. It’s been slow bait.”
But her love of art has been around since she was a kid.
“I think most of the times we start off as artists,” she says. “We draw before we can write, and it’s just something that always stayed with me.”
Nakima actually went to school for biology and is able to fuse that knowledge into her work.
Her vibrant artwork is currently being featured in the Mint Museum for the next couple of months, but that’s not the only place you’ll find it.
If you’ve visited the East Town Market, then you’ve likely seen her mural.
Nakima’s work caught the eye of Janelle Collins with Red Hill Ventures, which owns East Town Market.
“We had a thought of engaging a local artist to do mural work for beautification and to add vibrancy and a pop of color to the center,” Collins says.
This 182,000-square-foot strip is filled with different retailers and restaurants and now a small section of Nakima’s engaging artwork.
“It’s really powerful when you take public art and you bring it directly where people are,” she says.
Collins and Nakima decided to team up again and apply for the Charlotte Placemaking Grant.
They were awarded the grant earlier this year, and the plan is for the money to be used to create more murals, an outdoor art space, and rotating sculpture garden exhibit at East Town Market.
“We live in a very interesting time culturally, and people are connected in different ways,” Collins says. “ I think now we understand the importance of knowing our neighbors and filling a part of a community and how important that is above all else.”
The money will also be used to create a public space for local artists to use.
The name of this project will be called Vision East Charlotte with Nakima serving as its creative director.
Collins will serve as the project director further connecting the two.
“I hope people are inspired from this art that’s created,” Collins says. “I love when I see people stop and look, and everybody is going to get a different story from that.”
Nakima has always had a love of art and is excited to use it to help transform her community.
“I hope that people are welcoming their creative selves,” she says. “I hope that people are excited to build more community through creativity and just use more of our imagination when it comes to what we will be doing.”
Collins says they are looking to have everything completed by this summer.
You can learn more about Vision East Charlotte here.
