A Geelong West mural celebrating cancer survivors has made the finals of a national street art competition.
Surf Coast artist Kirsten Walsh’s mural, The Brave and The Beautiful, made the shortlist for the external mural category at the Australian Street Art Awards.
The “hyper-realism” artist was overjoyed and “honoured” to make the finals of the competition with her first-ever mural.
“I normally work with pencil, so it was out of my comfort zone,” she admitted.
“It’s more than 10 metres long and three metres high, so the scope was quite daunting.”
But Walsh was able to adapt her artistic skills onto the new medium.
“This wall is now a focal point for the community and locals of Geelong,” she said.
The mural spreads across the Weller Street wall of Bakers Delight Geelong West and features a bald woman on a pink background representing breast cancer.
It also depicts a beanie-wearing woman in tribute to brain cancer survivors and a young child blowing a dandelion as a message of hope.
“The owner of the store, Suranga Sena, who commissioned the piece, is a cancer survivor. So he’s quite passionate about it,” Walsh said.
“I have lost a family member to cancer, my mother-in-law, who fought a very long battle with breast cancer. I think everybody knows somebody affected by cancer.”
The winners in all eight Australian Street Art Awards categories will be announced on March 2 on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
“With COVID restrictions on indoor numbers in most states and territories, street and public art is a free gift to every traveller,” awards director Liz Rivers said.
Luke Voogt
