ARTIST Lu Ray & Wiegand
TITLE Becoming One With Nature
LOCATION 7031 S Broadway
WARD 1
FOLLOW @not.cis & @_wiegand
ABOUT LU RAY
Lu Ray was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1997. They are self taught and have over 5 years of experience teaching art professionally. They activate private and public spaces through reclaimed-material mosaics, paint, and functional artwork.
The artist has exhibited work in the midwest, including known St. Louis art spaces Houska Gallery, Angad Arts Hotel, St. Louis Artist Guild, Vacancy Gallery and The Drugstore in Kansas City. They have taught in public schools, non profits, and private workshops for ages 5 to 75.
In 2019 they won the Solar Girl juried art contest. In 2023, the artist received a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for their mosaic pothole project. They also received an artist support grant from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis for a workshop series titled Clay Dates.
In 2024, they were awarded the Tech Artista Accelerator Grant and Residency. Their work has been reviewed on NPR, KMOV, Voyage STL and Share Your Voice STL. The artist continues to live and work in St. Louis, Missouri.
ABOUT WIEGAND
As Saint Louisan as they come, Wiegand is a southside born and raised muralist who’s been painting walls for more than half his life. An avid creative, with a lot of love for the city he’s from. Honored to take part in a worthwhile investment being made to local artists, and more than happy to do so along side his fellow friend and creative Lu.
ABOUT THIS MURAL
An organic human-like figure is the center of the work, surrounded by animals. The person is being taken over by nature and is simultaneously overwhelmed and delighted by realizing they are a part of nature, rather than against it. The colors are very bright, happy, and vibrant. The mural also has historical significance when the audience interprets the image.
St. Louis was founded on Osage land, and historically the people who settled did not work with nature. They destroyed mounds, animal habitats, and expressed dominance over nature by destroying wetlands and old growth forest. In this imaginative composition nature is consuming the narrative of dominance by gently reinserting themselves. No matter how hard humans try to remove themselves from nature, we will always be a part of the ecosystem that was always here first.