So happy with my participation in @artfieldssc . The whole experience was fantastic, getting to meet new people and displaying my work alongside really talented artists. Thank you @noahscalin for the pic, the tour…and everything else. I hope to be back next year!
Yesterday we “unveiled the past”, with this Settling Table at the @vmhceducation , honoring three legendary immigrants who are part of Virginia’s history: Pauline Adams (Ireland), Robert Nathaniel Dett (Canada) and Tsuruju Miyazaki (Japan).
When a mural wraps, we don’t say “done.”
We say, let’s talk about how we got here.
The moments that quietly shape the work.
That’s why we started our podcast.
Each episode takes you behind the mural and into the honest conversations that brought it to life.
Just listening longer and letting the conversation lead.
It’s here. 🎙️
Our newest episode is live.
🎧 Pull up a chair.
✨ Link in bio.
Podcast by @19red.fuel
📸 Natalie Ewell
The 2nd mural in the Trust Building/s series is done! This collaboration between me and @adrawingtable is thanks to @hamglass who teamed us up in 2020. So grateful that @mendingwallsrva is supporting us in this 2 year project about connection through conversation across divides. For this mural we're focused on the trust pillar of empatía (empathy) and our models are Alfonso himself and @waynedementi . Their words form the background of their portrait in an emotional trust building pose. Thanks to Jim & Frazier from One Small Step (a project of @storycorps ) for coordinating the essential conversations that are the leaping off point for these murals. And thanks to @katjonescreative for taking the photos that are the core of these murals. And thanks to @leahfremouw & Jason Renner for offering us this wall. Looking forward to making mural 3 in the spring of 2026! Come see this one at 18th and Grace St. in Shockoe Bottom here in #RVA
Feliz and grateful for the unveiling of Empatía today, with all the fantastic people that came together to celebrate. Abrazos!
*first pic by @lupitacorreat
The Barefoot Circle by Alfonso Pérez Acosta invites you to slip off your shoes and feel the textured stones beneath your feet. Inspired by “Tap Shek” reflexology, this playful and therapeutic rock garden fosters a sense of home, hospitality, and belonging in nature’s embrace at the Garden.
Part of Homes & Habitats on view March 29 through September 28, 2025, this exhibition features seven large-scale installations inspired by ecosystems. /visit/exhibitions/homes-and-habitats/
🎨: @adrawingtable
📷: Will Nelson
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#rvaartist #rvaart #loveva #visitrichmondva #visitva #henrico #midlothianva #shortpump #virginiaartist #publicgarden #mandalaartwork
Reflecting on Reliability, Leaning Deeper Into Trust
Okay friends—this one’s special. 💛
We just released a new podcast episode featuring two talented & passionate humans and artists—Noah Scalin and Alfonso Pérez Acosta—talking about the heart behind the Trust Building/s mural series.
The Trust Building Series started with them. Before there were walls to paint or partners to collaborate with, there was a deep desire to explore what trust really looks like in a community. Their first mural, Reliability, grew out of that vision—and it’s now fully complete on West Main Street. 🙌
In the episode, they talk about the inspiration behind the mural, the powerful conversation between Kate and Toi that helped shape it, and how their words—actual words from their exchange—are now painted into the wall itself. These are words that breathe. Words that hold space. And now, they live on the wall as a reminder of what it means to build trust in public.
🎨 We know you're dying to listen to the episode!
We updated the page with all the good stuff:
🔗 /trustbuildings-reliability
This mural is just the beginning. We’re already leaning into the next one… and we can’t wait to bring you along for that, too.
🎥 @19red.fuel
#TrustBuildings #MendingWallsRVA #OneSmallStep #Reliability #PublicArtWithPurpose
What Does Trust Look Like? Richmond Artists Offer an Answer
A 100-foot brick wall in Richmond’s Fan District now carries a word in bold ghost-sign lettering: RELIABILITY.
Painted by local artists Noah Scalin and Alfonso Pérez Acosta, it’s the first in a four-part series of murals under the banner Trust Buildings, part of the Mending Walls RVA public art initiative. Each mural will center on one of the four pillars of trust: reliability, honesty, empathy and consistency.
Back in 2020, Scalin and Pérez Acosta collaborated on Together We Rise, a mural born from the conversations and protests following the murder of George Floyd.
“Our first mural spoke to the big national moment,” Pérez Acosta said. “This time we asked, how do we get into those conversations in a more specific way right here in Richmond by highlighting people with different backgrounds and political views and showing how they literally build trust between their differences?”
Read more. Link in bio.
Featured: @adrawingtable@noahscalin@mendingwallsrva@hamglass@storycorps
✏️: @majormajor____
📸: @katjonescreative
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#rva #richmonndva #richmond
