Market Monday: Inspire. Dream Big. Expose the Soul.

We are another Monday closer to market! If you haven’t already, be sure to visit our Holiday Market Details page where you will find details for the event, a list of participating vendors, tickets, and sponsorship opportunities!

This week, we continue our Market Monday series with our partner M2G Ventures. We know many of you have started to see great works of public art in neighborhoods around town, and M2G Ventures and artist, Katie Murray, are behind a few of them. Read on to learn more about the importance of this art and the new projects they have in the works.

Public art is an important part of our business plan. Murals and thought-provoking, inspirational art can be small in scale but make a big impact. Our mission at M2G is to inspire, dream big, and expose the soul of the communities in which we are involved. And what better way to do that than with a little public art?

Our first step towards incorporating art into our business and the community, was the start of our Dreamer Series. We partnered with our friend, and lucky for us, super talented artist, Katie Murray to create three murals across Fort Worth with messages to dream and to dream big. We wanted people to feel uplifted and inspired and we also wanted to make people think. The first of three murals in the series is “Dream on Dreamer.” The intent of the work is to create an avenue for people seeking a purpose for their life and to be both inspired and awestruck. The work is figurative to convey a sense of accessibility to the audience but is also posh and contemporary to express the current times.

Because the idea of dreaming can be abstract, an abstract sunset was painted to compliment the female figure. This was a collaborative effort by three dreamers, who had a vision for what Fort Worth was looking for but had not yet found. The second mural is located in The Foundry District and titled “Don’t Quit Your Daydream.” DQYD highlights a strong, mod, female figure displayed against a black and white illustrative background composed of a wide variety of people from various walks of life. It highlights the community that coexists within The Foundry District as its established. Instead of camouflaging the piping and electrical units on the wall, they were utilized and exposed to complete the colorful composition. Daydreaming should not be limited to one culture, but should be expansive, and this mural in particular proves to justify that theory. The third and final mural in the Dreamer Series takes an interactive approach, with the help of community involvement. "Follow Your Dreams" features another strong female figure in the foreground, with decorative patterning as her backdrop. The remaining wall contains the written dreams of local community members. Everyone has a dream, and we invite people to share their dreams with us in hopes of creating even more camaraderie within the Southside community. You can find this mural on the side of 1305 W Magnolia.

We will soon be starting on Mural Alley. Ideas are still being put together, but we already have 2 murals planned for this part of The Foundry District. One of the murals will be for Cowtown Marathon. For the other mural, we’ve teamed up with Girls Inc. Earlier this month, the M2G team got the opportunity to meet with the girls of this organization. After a dinner and the exchanging of fun and creative thoughts from the girls, Katie Murray is working on the perfect design to incorporate all of their wonderful ideas. We want this to be a place of hopefulness and inspiration and are excited to see it come together.

Aside from murals, we have made other artistic contributions to the Fort Worth area. We have given the Fort Worth community a public piano we call “The Peace Machine.” Painted neon yellow with one of our favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, it is periodically moved around the city waiting to be played by passerbys. Music is without a doubt a powerful unifier and we couldn’t think of a better gift to give to the community than the gift of togetherness. Recently, we have also created a little library for the community that is free to use whenever they’d like. It’s decorated with chalk and has a message to “Create the things you wish existed.” on top. We want to share our love of books and learning with the community and encourage people to come take and leave books as they please!

We are constantly inspired by the things around us and want to inspire the community in turn.

We think the murals that M2G and Katie Murray have created are amazing. They are a great addition to Fort Worth neighborhoods and only add to the beauty of the great city we live in. Keep your eye out for more of their work around town and if you come across the piano, definitely don’t hesitate to tickle those ivories!