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Painting the Town
Artwork by Brook Page can be found in many public spaces
By Holly Tishfield
Local artist Brook Page has literally left her mark on North Florida.
If you live in Northeast Florida, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some of local artist Brook Page’s work. Maybe you’ve posed with it for a photo, maybe you’ve purchased a print, or maybe you pass it by at every weekend when you do your grocery shopping, and you don’t even realize it.
Page comes from a long lineage of artists. An Idahoan raised in Southern California, Page found her passion in art early, with her artistic career practically written in her DNA. Her great-uncle was the well-known North Carolinian painter Claude Howell, and Page found herself with a portfolio of artwork in her hands as young as fifth grade.
When she was a teenager, Page and her family moved to St. Johns County, where she attended Nease High School, wearing out every art program that she could get her hands on. Eventually, she attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she majored in illustration with a focus on children’s books.
She practiced various art forms at the university: everything from puppeteering to animation to sculpture, and put her post-secondary education to use as an art teacher back in Southern California.
It wasn’t long before the sound of North Florida came knocking on her door again, so she moved back to St. Johns County and secured a job at Trader Joe’s as a sign artist, a coveted position in the art community that involves hand-painting signs for local stores.
Page convinced the store to allow her to paint murals on the walls (another typical Trader Joe’s quirk), and from there, her career as an artist skyrocketed.
Page became a household name in the Southeastern United States and Trader Joe’s community, painting in-store murals for dozens of Trader Joe’s locations, including ones in Jacksonville Beach, Mandarin, Miami, Coral Springs, Fort Myers, and even a few in Georgia, Arkansas, and Alabama.
“I’ve known about Trader Joe’s my whole life, so I was one of the first people in line when it opened here,” Page said. “Now, all the artwork that you see in any Trader Joe’s around here, that’s me.”
Page flew around the Southeast to paint murals for Trader Joe’s until about three years ago, when she decided to pursue becoming a full-time, independent artist. In these last three years alone, she’s experienced enormous growth.
Page won a contest in St. Augustine that earned her the honor of painting the official mural for the city’s pier, full of colorful sunrays and a few of Florida’s most iconic animals. Last season, her artwork was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars as the team’s official game day poster for Week 13. Page is also responsible for the vivid, nature-focused mural on Main Street in Hastings, which took inspiration from R.L. Lewis’ painting called Sunset Glow: A Hastings Harvest.
Earlier this year, she won a contest through the Jacksonville Transit Authority to have her artwork displayed in various bus shelters around the city, too.
Beyond painting murals for both private businesses (such as the mural set to appear at the new Island Wing Company in Durbin Park) and large corporations (such as her upcoming collaboration for murals with local Walmarts), Page also displays her artwork in local galleries like St. Augustine’s Plum Gallery.
Page sells smaller prints of her artwork at several arts markets in the area, such as pop-ups at the Nocatee Farmers Market, the monthly MOCA Jacksonville First Wednesday Art Walk, and most events that take place at the Lightner Museum.
“The prints have become a huge thing,” Page said. “It’s a great way for me to meet people in the community and allow people to have a taste of my artwork without the expensive price tag that often comes with it.”
When it comes to the inspiration for her pieces, Page said that it’s a combination of everything she’s experienced and the things that mean the most to her. Nature and local wildlife are a given, considering her family’s adoration for animals, but also food and children’s books, remnants of previous jobs.
“I love painting colorful things because it’s almost like my therapy, so there’s almost a whimsical vibe to what I do,” she said.
For more information on Page’s artwork, you can find her at www.brookpageart.com.