North Carolina-based painter and muralist Taylor White has completed a new work in Lynn, Massachusetts, for Beyond Walls. The mural can be found at 20 Neptune Boulevard, at the Lynn YMCA.
White developed the work alongside a student cohort from St. Mary’s Lynn, with support from educator Ndesi. Rather than assigning the wall a fixed title, the artist frames it through a meditation on order: the patterns found in nature, the pursuit of truth, the experience of beauty and the human drive to make.
For White, art, science, mathematics, music and faith become distinct but related ways of attending to that larger structure. The artist writes that creativity begins with receiving—whether through observation, listening or contemplation—and becomes a form of participation rather than possession. The mural extends that thinking into a collaborative setting, bringing an artist, students and educators into the making of a public image.
The commission forms part of Beyond Walls’ Classroom to the Streets programme, which connects artists, teachers and young people in Lynn to develop large-scale murals and related learning projects. Beyond Walls lists the Demakes Family YMCA among the programme’s community partners, while the organisation’s wider work has made outdoor art a defining feature of downtown Lynn.
White’s practice moves between figuration and abstraction, often considering the tension between structure and spontaneity. Here, the artist directs that interest toward a shared proposition: in difficult times, she suggests, power may lie in orienting oneself toward what is true, beautiful and good—and in returning one’s gifts to their source.
Images via @taylorwhitestudio on Instagram.