{"id":484671,"date":"2026-01-01T12:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/484671\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T12:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:04:15","slug":"a-celebration-of-art-community-and-the-st-johns-river-resident-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/484671\/","title":{"rendered":"A Celebration of Art, Community and the St. Johns River \u2013 Resident News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The year ended on a high note for Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP) as it celebrated the unveiling of the new Patrick Maxcy mural at the Riverside Arts Market.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives from RAP, RAM, JEA and other project and city stakeholders spoke at the Dec. 12 unveiling ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbundant Waters\u201d is a 17-by-90-foot mural that stretches across the walls of the JEA pump station and depicts wildlife, flora and fauna connected to the St. Johns River, which serves as the backdrop to the weekly open-air market beneath the Fuller Warren Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>Maxcy, a Northeast Florida artist, spent more than 100 hours bringing the mural to life. At the ceremony, he said this work is the first piece he\u2019s created in the region he is from and, as such, holds special significance to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really was excited to paint this,\u201d Maxcy said. \u201cNot just having something close to home, but in a place that actually I come with my family, coming to the skate park, coming to the Riverside Arts Market on Saturdays. It\u2019s great to be part of that community and then see something that I worked on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adding an interactive element to his work, Maxcy noted that he placed 10 hidden hearts throughout the mural. Maxcy explained that he has a long-standing tradition of placing hidden objects in his work \u2013 his initials or other elements \u2013 but the hearts began as a heartfelt nod to his wife to show her she was part of his work as well.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RAPMural_Photo1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Artist Patrick Maxcy and RAP Creating Placemaking Specialist Kandice Clark post before a section of \u201cAbundant Waters\u201d at the Dec. 12 mural unveiling.\" class=\"wp-image-60195\"  \/>Artist Patrick Maxcy and RAP Creating Placemaking Specialist Kandice Clark post before a section of \u201cAbundant Waters\u201d at the Dec. 12 mural unveiling. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope it makes people come out and see [the mural] more and find them with their kids,\u201d Maxcy added.<\/p>\n<p>The mural was funded by Haskell, the PNC Foundation and the Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board. Haymaker Coffee Co. also contributed to the fund by donating a percentage of its sales over a period last year. Maxcy was selected from a pool of 70 artist applicants following a seven-week call for artists.<\/p>\n<p>RAP Creative Placemaking Specialist Kandice Clark led the project and said this mural furthers RAP\u2019s placemaking goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of RAP\u2019s major goals is to make sure \u2013 it\u2019s very simple, but it\u2019s very important \u2013 that we make this place a better place for not only the people who live here, but also the people who love it here, and today\u2019s unveiling is a true reflection of that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year ended on a high note for Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP) as it celebrated the unveiling of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":484672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-484671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}