Last Friday I had the good fortune of meeting up with local artist, Matt Hebermehl.  You may be more familiar with his work than you know.  Have you seen the new mural on MLK right before Broughton?  Or the mural on 34^th street – also known as “The Muracle on 34^th Street”?  Yes? Ok then you’re familiar.

A quick bit about Matt.  He’s originally from Denver, but moved here to Savannah for SCAD in ’99.  After graduating in 2003, he set off to San Diego and then eventually moved back here to Savannah.  Once back in Savannah, he joined up with SeeSAW (co-founded by Matt and James “Dr. Z” Zdaniewski), an organization to promote positive community themed murals in the public domain.  He even helped set a policy with city planning for the ability to put up murals in Savannah to beautify the city – no easy task for sure, since it took 2 ½ years and was finalized in January of this year.   

So lets chat about the mural on MLK #WalltowallSAV.  What’s it all about?  Converse highlighting the Chuck Taylor (c’mon I know you have a pair in your closet).  Matt was contacted by the marketing firm for Converse, and Converse is partnered up with Juxtapoz Magazine (my favorite magazine EVER by the way).  Converse picked Savannah as it’s market, Googlized SeeSAW and boom found Matt and sent him an email for a list of local artists in the area.  On the long list, Matt was chosen to not only help Converse get their marketing completed, but beautify Savannah at the same time.  Win win.  The awesome thing about all this, is that Savannah is getting put on everyone’s radar nationwide – actually worldwide (yes, Juxtapoz goes out that far).  Not only as a tourist destination, but as a place for art and music as well. 

The mural will be put on the back cover of Juxtapoz magazine, which will also include Matt’s name and the city of Savannah being highlighted.  I asked Matt what it was like to be included in Juxtapoz along with some great artists (such as Mark Ryden, Todd Schorr,  and Sheryo X the Yok), and he responded in modesty “ it’s cool”, but eventually a big smile popped up on his face.  I can’t blame him, I would smile big too.

Ok, so check the mural out for yourself.  Then get connected with Matt (hebermehl_art on instagram).

Written by: Brittany Caudill (@mrscaudill on twitter)