Stunning mural inspires creativity in Wilmington’s Castle Street district

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Martha Anne Efird, who lives off of Castle Street, has turned her home into a work of art, bringing a colorful mural to her neighborhood.

“The Castle Street District is very important to a lot of people in Wilmington and we really just wanted to illustrate the artistry here,” says Efird. “The community is just really special and so I wanted to show that on my house.”

She and her company, Simply Mae Marketing, have been asking the district’s businesses and building owners to bring murals to Castle Street, but some were a bit hesitant.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to put my money where my mouth is,’ so to speak. If people are afraid of murals, I can’t ask them to take that risk without me taking the risk so I put it on my house,” says Efird. "I thought, ‘If I can put a mural on my house, you can put a beautiful mural on your building and celebrate something that is important to you in Wilmington and highlight how much we love the city because we all do.’”

Tiffany “Nugget” Machler Walls and Jimmy Dean are the artists working to create the masterpiece on her home.

“It brings together a sense of community when it’s public art like this,” says Walls. "It starts getting people geared towards creating something positive. When there is public art in the neighborhood, people hesitate to throw a piece of litter on the ground in front of a mural, I’ve noticed, and little kids smile, and people stop to take teaching moments with their kids, and even if it’s not a teaching moment it’s a family moment. I’ve got to see that happening and I don’t see it bringing anything but positive into the world.”

Walls and Dean will be completing their next project on Castle Street, painting a mural at one of the major intersections so that everyone will be able to see driving through the district.

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