'Living Walls' Comes to East Atlanta

For the past several days, the brick facades of the Asylum restaurant and Sokai Salon on Flat Shoals Avenue have been giving way to two large-large scale murals.

The murals are part of the Living Walls series, the Atlanta art community's annual move to convert blank walls into vibrant works of public art.

Past projects have transformed walls at prominent intersections and thoroughfares such as Boulevard and Edgewood Avenue in Old Fourth Ward; Kirkwood Avenue and Kenyon Street in Kirkwood; DeKalb Avenue in Inman Park, and .

This year, the focus is on female artists from metro Atlanta and around the world to put their mark on the city.

As part of this year's series of projects, the Living Walls Conference will showcase art while also aiming to highlight a number of problems facing the city.

The 2012 conference, a five-day event featuring 26 female street artists, will include film screenings, lectures, block parties, gallery exhibits and bike tours.

Tonight, artists and art lovers are invited to 170 Chester Ave. SE in Reynoldstown to tour the conference's abandoned Art House from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

East Atlanta Patch caught up with the two artists involved with the East Atlanta murals – Shallom Johnson of Vancouver, Canada and Fefe Talavera of São Paulo, Brazil — to get insight into the vision behind their murals.