Kevin Bate is a local artist who is developing a city-wide reputation for portraits he’s painted on the outer walls of buildings all over the city. You may have seen his black and white portrait of Martin Luther King on Martin Luther King Boulevard or his portraits of Steve Jobs and the other three IT pioneers on Frazier Avenue.
But as a longtime resident of Highland Park it has always been one of his goals to get people to take another look at the long neglected, but now revitalized neighborhood. One way he plans to do that is by decorating the walls of the mostly industrial buildings that ring the neighborhood. After spending the past two years raising the funds he’s started on the first phase of the project. A group of local artists have been painting on the walls on the two blocks of McCallie Avenue adjacent to the intersection with Holtzclaw Avenue. In this interview, several of the artists discuss the project.
