Chris Owens: Black Lives Matter Mural

Photo by fatal_rhythm

In early August Salt Lake City introduced a new ‘Black Lives Matter’ mural designed by eight different artists. The mural was launched in conjunction with seven policy reforms to the Salt Lake City Police Department. 

Chris Owens, a seasoned artist and Creative Director of 1520 Arts was entrusted as a committee member for the mural and was responsible for the ‘B’ and the ‘S’. The usage of Chris’ emblematic cartoonish and pastel style added to the mural’s diverse brilliance. 

Recently, Salt Lily had the privilege to sit down with Chris Owen to discuss the ‘Black Lives Matter’ mural and his personal inspirations. 

You’re a hip hop dancer as well as a visual artist, does dancing influence you at all? 

Hip Hop was a huge part of it [visual art] because just being engulfed into it, you run into the other elements, which one of them was graffiti. that played a huge part. And I always loved like, seeing like, like murals and different things done like that, but like graffiti made it [art] accessible

What are some of your other influences? 

I'm inspired by like, a lot of like, old cartoons. When I was young, that's all I would just watch. Then like, a lot of street artists are a huge inspiration of mine. 

I have to ask what’s your favorite cartoon? 

I love a lot of like, old classic stuff. So like Bugs Bunny.Obviously a lot of Disney stuff like Mickey Mouse, things of that nature. But like all the offshoot cartoons that like nobody ever messed with. That's the stuff I like. 

Can you give me an example? 

Like The Snorks or The Peanut Gang

What’s your favorite thing to make art about?

It's people. I've been doing this series of like profile shots. So that is just like a side mugshot, essentially of someone. You really don’t see too many people doing that. Everybody's always straight on.

Is there a general idea or question you’re trying to convey to your audience with your art? 

I mean, I like art that's kind of ambiguous and you know, kind of makes the user think. I love different colors, like bright colors, too. And so a lot of times when I'm even doing like skin tones, I won't even do it in a normal skin tone. It'll be like a blue person, or someone like green or with a shade of purple. Just because I like doing profiles of people. But I want people don't like the past just like the color of it all. And just really just take the whole piece in as a whole and have to worry about things like gender or race and stuff like that.

How did you get involved with painting the Black Lives Matter mural? 

 I was asked to be on the committee for it originally and helped choose artists. We had one artist that was assigned to the 'B' and 'S', and she unfortunately couldn't make the dates to paint. So then they needed somebody to fill in. And so then Mayor Mendenhall asked if I could just fill in.

How did you choose the artists for the mural? 

Everybody had to submit a profile. In the profile, it told a little bit about them and what piece that they would actually like to create for the mural. There was so much love and thought put into all the ones you currently see. 

What is the meaning behind your mural? 

So it's funny because I  asked the mayor 'like, so you calling in a hail mary, I have to get involved. Can I paint anything I want?' You know, everything got pre approved. Like, luckily, the committee had enough trust around my ability that I got to do whatever. I've been doing a lot of pieces to commemorate a lot of the people who have fallen this year like George Floyd. A lot of the black lives  have been lost and that was really taxing and wearing on me.  I kind of don't want to design anymore dead black people. It was bumming me out. It's like making a funeral program. I had a lot of feelings about Briana Taylor and the injustice she had gone through and no one got charged.. It was like a calling. Her just story blew me away. I wanted to do something for her in some way. Then I got asked to do the ‘B”. There was a  feeling and it was just like the writing's on the wall, like this is going to be the mural that represents Salt Lake and tells the world that we're inclusive and open minded, and there are black lives here and they do matter. What  better way to kick it all off, then put in Breanna Taylor up in the front, kick to start everything off.  To have just a strong statement to say like, hey, you're being heard. That was like a tribute for me.

A lot of people have criticized Black Lives Matter and have stated it’s a hate group. What do you think about that? 

 I think that just from the things that I've experienced, and the feedback that I've heard, people really get the looting and the writing mixed up. It can start off as like a peaceful protest. And then obviously, as time goes on, As night falls or whatever things escalate, and looting and rioting happen, people get a little more agitated. Instead of seeing it as like two different divisions or anything like that, they kind of just like bundle, whatever is out in the streets together. think that that's a huge portion of the people will just watch the news and imagine like, if you take it like in Cliff Notes like Twitter or something like that, right, so you turn on the news is like, oh, Black Lives Matter, all these people holding up signs and, and they're protesting peacefully, they like turn off your TV, you come back on for like, the six o'clock news. And it's nighttime and the building are on fire.  I think the disconnect is, which a lot of the places that was not the case, you know, like in California, people were driving in, it was like, very, like organized driving into the state to commit things, knowing that people are going to protest. So yeah, it's, I think people have to just do a lot more research, or go to a rally.

A lot of people have also criticized the mural because they see it as an attempt at virtue signaling. What’s your opinion on that? 

 I don't think anywhere in there it was it  saying, like,’ hey, here, we have this mural now stop everything that you're doing. We still have a peaceful protest every Sunday by a collective group for a lot of different injustices that are happening in the city, but it's mostly led by like Black Lives Matter movement. I think people don't realize how and what you have to do to actually get something like this, passed, and all the red tape that you have to cut through. At any point, I think the mayor could have just easily just like, stopped, especially as soon as she started getting criticism.The fact that she could look past that, and not take it personal and still look at the bigger picture, a lot of people's issues too with it, or on a such a local level. Why I even like decided to get involved was because I was talking to my uncle, and he was like, This is bigger than where you're at this is bigger than Salt Lake, you know, this, here, give put out a statement to all the surrounding states that may not even know or may not even be involved to say, like, love Black Lives Matter, here in Utah, maybe in one of the whitest states ever. it is such a strong, powerful beacon

On a personal level why do you think this mural is important? 

I think it really makes a statement for Utah to say that no, we're not just going to, leave it like blind eyes or just like, look the other way. There are injustices happening in our state and in other places around the country. 

In conjunction with the mural Mayor Mendenhall announced policy reforms to the Salt Lake City Police Department. Do you think these reforms are going to bring change? 

I hope they do. I mean, it's a step forward in that right direction. I was also in the military so I also have a clear understanding that to make a change you need time. You have to give it that time to actually like, mature and to go through the proper channels.  I think everyone just wants immediate results, you know, and so for some things like police reform, that is really a complicated situation, it's not as easy as you may think. 

Salt Lake is known to be not diverse, especially concerning the art community. Do you think it's changing at all?

Slowly, but surely, I think, because for the amount of time that I've been here, especially in the last five years, I think it is definitely getting more diverse and inclusive for everything. I remember going to the Pride Parade for the first time, and the amount of people boycotting and with signs was insane. There was no corporate sponsorship. Now you go and Utah has one of the biggest and celebratory Prides and there is a lot of corporate sponsorships. So to me, that was already showing change. You can just kind of feel it in the city, you know, with just the growth of different businesses. Then I also saw a Juneteenth event, like I got to see a massive group of like black people here, and I just was so blown away.

You can see more of Chris Owens’ work on his Instagram.