NTWRK, Walmart and visual artist Paper Frank pay homage to Atlanta through art

thefader.com:

Curated livestream shopping platform NTWRK teamed up with visual artist Paper Frank and retail giant Walmart on a one-of-a-kind art piece that pays homage to not only his Atlanta roots, but also Diddy's REVOLT WORLD festival that took place over the weekend.

As part of a larger initiative to amplify Black creatives, Walmart commissioned Frank, a self-taught artist known for creating album art for rappers like Gunna, Juice WRLD, and Future, to craft the acrylic and aerosol on canvas piece "Journey." Read Next: NTWRK, Audible, and Amazon Music celebrate 50 years of Hip-Hop with immersive multimedia experience Featuring a trio of bold, bright-eyed, and blue-haired characters, Frank says the pop-art-inspired piece was inspired by creativity, passion, and the spirit of ambition. "My characters represent all the young Black kids once they realize their potential; after that, the sky's the limit," the Atlanta-born artist explained. "I gave them different expressions and colored flowers because all minds are different.

What inspires you might not inspire the next person, but as long as you're inspired, that dream or idea will grow as long as you nurture it." Its optimistic tone is also juxtaposed by two of the three characters sporting band-aids across their faces, something Frank says comes in the aftermath of chasing one's dreams. "The bandages symbolize the bumps and bruises you'll encounter along the path until the day something sparks that thing in your mind that you just can't stop thinking about until you do it," Frank explained.

Attendees of REVOLT WORLD saw the piece in person at the on-site Walmart Makers Studio, a pop-up experience featuring Black makers, creators, and entrepreneurs.