Downtown Plant City got a little more colorful thanks to St. Pete resident and artist Courtney Dodson (no relation to our city commissioner), who transformed a new dumpster into a work of art. The dumpster, located in the parking lot off Palmer Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was unveiled last week.
The Trash Can-Vas Project, sponsored by Plant City Main Street (PCMS), MAKE Plant City and the City of Plant City, is part of an initiative to bring more public art to downtown and is a follow-up to the Electric Art Box project, which saw downtown’s electric boxes wrapped in vinyl artwork from a number of artists.
Dodson’s art, titled “Always in Season”, is drawn in a graphical tattoo-style and features Florida-native flora and fauna. Her design was selected from a pool of artists who responded to the project’s call for artists. “I spent a lot of time Googling what’s natural to Florida but also brightly colored so I ended up with a design that shows a mockingbird, a bumble bee, a green tree frog, Beautyberry branches, azaleas and fire brush,” she said. “I hope everyone likes it.”
It took Dodson about two weeks, working four to five hours a day, to complete the piece. “I used chalk markers to put the design on the dumpster, came back and filled it all in using a paintbrush and then used a thick black oil paint marker to go over the outlines,” she said.
In addition to the dumpster, Dodson’s whimsical paintings and digital art can be found in local galleries and exhibits across Tampa Bay, including Lucid Vending Machines, Green Bench Brewing and a recently completed sidewalk mural for the city of Pinellas Park.
“The Trash Can-Vas Program adds a piece of unexpected beauty, which helps to make Downtown a more interesting and vibrant place to walk, shop and enjoy,” said Dawn Hyatt, Executive Director of PCMS. “We are so appreciative of this collaboration to support the Downtown Vision Plan by adding public art.”
City Manager Bill McDaniel said the unique project is another way to beautify downtown. “It’s spectacular, when I pulled into the parking lot I was impressed and thought it was a great addition here,” he said.
The Trash Can-Vas Program was also made possible with support from the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.