“Beautiful Creatures”
Location: Museum of Boulder
2205 Broadway Boulder, CO 80302
2023 Fall Mural Series
Photos by Peter Kowalchuk and Dona Laurita
Yazz Atmore’s mural “Beautiful Creatures” stands as a portal between our world and the spiritual world.
The artist calls herself a unicorn in the mural world; she works as a wheat-paste muralist, using paper and glue rather than any type of paint. Her piece for the Fall Mural Series stands at 8 feet tall and 28 feet wide - quite a large canvas for paper. The artist also often works in a collage style, taking bits and pieces from a variety of sources and putting them together to create something unique.
For “Beautiful Creatures,” Yazz pulled a Black woman’s portrait from a magazine. The woman peers out at the viewer with a bright smile, wearing a simple white collared shirt and large gold earrings. However, Yazz obscures her eyes with layers of flora and fauna, including a dragonfly, roses, white lilies, and green foliage. The artist also layers circular Saturn-esque shapes near her head and chin.
Two large dragonflies flank the ends with subtle rays glowing from underneath each. In the center of the mural, another dragonfly faces a beaming light, dividing the mural in half with a mirror image on either side.
Yazz’s art practice is grounded in her spiritual practice. The artist wants her mural to serve as a reminder that we are all beautiful flawed people, always transforming, changing, and learning. It is important to stay gentle with ourselves and others as we are doing as best we know how.
She thinks of her work as a portal between the viewer and the Divine. However you choose to interact with the mural, trust the feelings and messages that arise; these are the messages you need.