Meet Grow Love

Grow Love (she/they), an inspiring artist and educator from Denver, is the founder of Grow Love International and one of the creative forces behind Babe Walls. Whether it’s canvas work or large-scale mural installations, Grow Love’s artistry nourishes every space it inhabits. From intricate floral designs to portraiture, their use of vibrant colors reflects Grow Love's deep passion for creativity.

Founded in 2019, Babe Walls is a pioneering collective that offers a welcoming environment for women and non-binary individuals in the mural art scene. It serves as both a platform for established artists and a springboard for emerging talents seeking guidance on their artistic journey. By fostering collaborations between artists, Babe Walls not only showcases the diverse strengths and styles of its members but also celebrates the shared experience of femininity and the essential element of mentorship within the community.

This April, Grow Love will be hosting a 2-Day Immersive Mural Painting Workshop with Street Wise Arts. As part of their diverse educational services, this workshop is designed to guide participants through the entire process of mural creation, from initial concept development to the final installation. 

Grow Love has met with intern Christine Stadnik to share more on their story.

Stay up to date with Grow Love’s work on their Instagram and Website. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Christine Stadnik

Tell us about yourself as an artist.

Grow Love

I primarily work in the mural field, but I also do canvas work. I use spray paint and acrylic. I went to school for painting. I graduated from the University of Denver with a Fine Arts Degree in Painting and Art History. 

Spray paint became the go-to medium when I realized I wanted to start painting murals. I self-taught, I picked up things here and there from friends, but focused all of my energy to spray paint for a year. I put my brushes away and told myself that if I am going to learn this medium, I'm going to need to not go back to acrylic during that time. I'm obsessed with it, which is why I teach it. I think within the greater art world it is underappreciated.

My art history background inspires me to mix historical-type paintings with spray paint. I do this to share that you can do what the art masters of the past did even when utilizing this contemporary medium. This is one way in which I push myself as an artist.

I am also the founder and co-founder of Babe Walls. It’s been such a lifelong dream come true to have a community that really values and respects each other. It's inclusivity, it's a family, it's a sisterhood. I think it's one of those rare things that you can find in this life that we all collectively created together. I think collaboration is key to pushing yourself, your abilities, and the way you think. It creates a very vibrant and inspiring life to do that.

Christine Stadnik

Where did the name Grow Love originate from? 

Grow Love

When I was diving into mural art, I knew I wanted to have a moniker, just like a lot of performers or writers have pseudonyms. I felt the need to do that to be able to distinguish my childlike self from my adult, working, and professional self. I wanted to have that healthy separation.

The time in which I was trying to come up with that moniker was really difficult. There was a lot of very dark, painful stuff that I was managing. I wanted something that would be transformative, a name that transmuted all of that pain. That is where Grow Love came from. My name is my beacon, my mission, and a prayer when people say it.

Christine Stadnik

Can you talk more about your experience with arts and education?

Grow Love

I was one of those kids in school who naturally had a knack for art and drawing. I also had incredible resources. My mom was a graphic designer, my dad a photographer, my grandfather a photographer, and both my grandmothers were artists in their own right whether it was painting, drawing, sculpting, quilt making, or dressmaking. Creativity was around me a lot growing up.

Having people who are artists outside of my family, usually my teachers in school, changed me. It also changed my confidence to see myself as an artist.

My high school art teachers were phenomenal. I went to Golden High School, which had a vast arts program. 

I've been teaching art for a long time. I've taught many people how to oil paint before I got into mural work. I always loved being able to share knowledge. When I taught myself how to spray paint, which was so hard, it helped me realize I also wanted to teach it. In the world where spray paint comes [from], graffiti and street art, I experienced the knowledge being very gatekept. I took it upon myself to start teaching, and because people want to learn. We are in a renaissance of mural making and public art.

Christine Stadnik

Are there any upcoming projects that you would like to share?

Grow Love

This time of year, at least February, March, April, are usually proposals and planning stages. I can't tell you how many solo proposals that I've personally sent out. 

But I've also sent out proposals with my team. I have a team called Tri Flora with Katie Casper and Talia Schwartz. We've been applying for bigger and bigger jobs. We found that when we apply as a team, we have better chances of getting those opportunities, and when we apply individually. There is a bias with female artists a lot of the time that we're somehow not capable. We've been applying for a ton of work; within the next couple of months we'll be finding out whether we got those jobs and then just squaring away our schedules. This is the calm before the storm.

Once April and May hit, it’s six months of pure mayhem. It's extremely all-encompassing. Something I've been working on is trying to manage burnout. Typically, I'm making a mural a week during the summertime or every other week or so.  During this, I still have to run my business, do proposals and plan things. It can get really crazy. 

Christine Stadnik

Is there anything else that you'd like to share that we haven't covered? 

Grow Love

I have an upcoming collection of work I'm making for Cirrus. Cirrus is a social Cannabis Consumption Club opening in Denver at the end of 2024. Arend Richard, the founder of Cirrus, had this realization that if you can go to the bars and clubs where they serve alcohol, why can't you do that with cannabis?

He has asked me to help him decorate his club. I'm going to do this beautiful mural on the marquee and inside there will be a collection of 14 pieces that will be available for sale as well. 

It's a huge undertaking because I have to fund this all myself. It will take months, but it is something that I'm really excited about. I signed up to be a founding member of the club because I think it’s a revolutionary idea, and I’m all about that. I don't really smoke a lot of weed, if at all. But I believe in this medicine and I believe in alternative spaces to alcohol consumption.

Celebrating Colorado's Black Street Artists Panel

Street Wise Arts teamed up with the Museum of Boulder for a panel discussion in honor of “Celebrating Colorado’s Black Street Artists” on Saturday, January 20, 2024.

In partnership with the Museum of Boulder, Street Wise Arts’ Fall Mural Series celebrates the exhibition “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History” open through September 2025. The exhibition works collaboratively to preserve Colorado’s rich and complex Black histories, broadly sharing and integrating them into Colorado education. The Fall Mural Series brought new public art to walls throughout Boulder, including the Museum of Boulder. Murals feature themes of building community, Afro-Futurism, and social justice.

Panelists included our fall muralists Yazz Atmore, Rob Hill, Marcus Murray, Jahna Rae, and Devin “Speaks” Urioste. Moe Gram moderated the discussion. Panelists described their murals from the fall series, and how social justice shows up in their lives and artistic practices. The artists also situated their journeys and artwork within Colorado’s Black history, namely how joy, ancestry, and community play a major role in their stories.

Check out photos from the panel by Street Wise intern and photographer Max Brager!

Exploring “The Love Below” with Kaylee Bender

Kaylee Bender, a self-taught artist raised on the East Coast, has always embraced art as an integral part of her life. With each piece, she delves deeper into her relationship with creation, viewing art as a powerful tool for expression and a catalyst for change. For Kaylee, uninhibited artistic expression is a form of pure liberation, a way to become unified with the world. In addition to her work in portraiture and surrealism, Kaylee looks forward to creating more community-focused and mentorship-based projects as she continues to evolve as an artist.

During a recent interview conducted by intern Christine Stadnik, Kaylee dove into her most recent solo show "The Love Below." The exhibition, held at The People’s Building through February 28, showcases Kaylee’s connection with the community and incorporates themes of self-love and liberation. This interview provides insight into Kaylee's creative process and her current projects and offers a glimpse into what the future holds for this talented artist.

Find Kaylee’s artwork at upcoming exhibitions, including “OMG! You’re So Pretty” opening March 1 at the Benchmark Theater, and “Babe Walls’ Women's History Month Art Show” at Ryan Joseph Gallery opening March 9. The artist is also organizing a student-led mural at Montview High School. Donate to the project here. 

Kaylee, Yazz Atmore, and Cya Davis are launching the Kinship Arts Movement, a public art initiative that promotes healthy disruption in the form of rest, creation, and public art without censoring artists. The program creates a safe space for people to foster new relationships and connect to art and education resources without the barrier of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic experience. Kaylee is also the founder of Colfax Cares, a mutual aid and public art initiative.

Visit her website or Instagram to stay up to date with Kaylee’s projects.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Christine Stadnik

Can you tell us about the inspiration and process behind your solo show pieces?

Kaylee Bender

My idea of it, really the name, came before the process and the premise, the stories. When I was thinking of “The Love Below,” I was thinking of the love that lives below the surface. I struggle with severe depression and anxiety. For the past year and a half, it has been hard for me to see the ability to love myself, which can cloud my ability to love others. It is that domino effect of losing affinity for the things around me, starting with myself. That was honestly really hard for me to sit with.

I had a long time to work on this show, but I did not start consciously working on things for the collection until January 23. Before this, I did not have whatever needed to come out. It wasn’t there yet. I'm honestly very impressed and thankful that I honored myself and my process in knowing that it wasn't something that could be forced. It was something that had to reveal itself. And I finally felt okay, I felt like I have the capacity to physically be at the studio working but also process it all and sit with painting. 

The first piece I started working on was Leroy Two. It's my second portrait I've made of a local neighbor named Leroy. He's one of the freshest people I know, the way he styles himself and presents himself in the world is breathtaking. Part of the conversation that we had was centered around music and his life experience. I was hearing so much triumph from a man who has been through it. He was there in the 60s. He was in the South. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia as a Black man. The amount of barriers he had just living his life versus the way that we do now…How he's still carrying that with him in the way of strength, and to me, I see it in the way he dresses. You see it in his face. You see it in his vibrant purple suit that says this is who I am. This is how I show up in the world. 

It was that conversation back in November that laid the groundwork of what it looks like to know that love is always present. With that inspiration, I started working on his portrait. Following it, the portraits I made in that period of time carried this narrative of strength and ancestral influence. One of the second portraits I painted in that week was of my friend Theresa, who my friends have described as the moon because of the way she shows up in your life. When she does, you are left with such wisdom and enlightenment or you're left with something to hold; her energy is so unique. She's full of light. Last year, I was in such a dark place that it was hard for me to process and I wanted this piece to be a celebration of someone who is constantly carrying light through their own darkness. As her mom is Filipina, she's been going through her own ancestral identity journey and sharing that with me. It has been such an inspiration in continuing to explore, “Where did I come from? Who am I?” This too has become a motivator for me to keep going, because I am in a position where my ancestors were not allowed to be. I keep this in mind as I create my art and through daily practices, which is another part of “The Love Below.”

This whole process for the show has been reminding myself that I do not need to feel the intense guilt and shame that has been following me for so long. I am allowed and encouraged to feel the love for myself of everything around me when I can, when it comes to the surface.

Christine Stadnik 

Can you share any memorable moments or experiences you've had during the creation of the artworks for this exhibition?

Kaylee Bender

Yes, I think specifically with the painting of my friend Theresa, called An Ode To My Friend. I recognized that I needed some sort of play or else I was not going to be able to make something that felt right. That piece was honestly the quickest piece. I dumped paint all over the canvas and was swishing it around and making shapes and splattering stuff. I thought it was funny because in all the workshops I do, especially with younger kids, I encourage them to do what I did, which was play. But in my own practice, I often forget. The Theresa piece was playful, which reminded me of her. Painting her was love, light, and levity while carrying the heavy realities of ancestral light. I am reminded of art, play, and community as liberation.

Christine Stadnik

What advice would you give to aspiring artists, or those in a creative rut?

Kaylee Bender

The first thing that comes to mind is that wherever you are is okay. It is necessary. Pause; pause and rest are necessary. Creative ruts are unavoidable. We get to choose how we interact with moments of stasis and stillness. We get to choose where the motion comes from. Especially for full-time artists, I think there's a lot of solitude in that. I have one friend who swears by having creative input and output every day in the smallest things. I think it's really easy to have creative input, like Instagram. I get a lot of input and then some days I don't have it; there's no making something. It just all sits in here. So create even if it's thirty seconds, two minutes doing something. Have a small creative output every day.

Christine Stadnik

Is there anything more you want to share about your exhibition, you as an artist, or what's next?

Kaylee Bender

I am working towards bigger installation-based artwork, and there were a couple of pieces in “The Love Below” that were smaller proofs of concept. This showed me that I could do it, even at a smaller scale. On my own creative journey, I look forward to creating some more immersion-based artwork.