The 30-foot mural, “Synergy,” is about reflecting the history and future of Winston-Salem, “And we really wanted to offer an opportunity to have some creative dialogue on the city as it progresses and have an honest piece of artwork that represents where we are,” Nakima said.

It was to have been publicly unveiled Saturday evening.

Nakima graduated from WSSU, in 2012 with a degree in biology. “I’ve always been an artist. I always drew and painted,” she said. “I became attracted to scientific illustration, and I would design and illustrate scientific ideas.”

But she also started selling her fine art and became more involved in the arts community in Charlotte. Science started to seem less fulfilling, so she built her portfolio, and over the past three years has transitioned to art full-time.

“My spirit told me I was not in alignment with my purpose,” Nakima said. “Once I aligned with my passion, I started making contacts and learning and growing.”

She was among the artists who painted a Black Lives Matter mural on a street in Charlotte recently.

“Public art can transform and uplift in a creative climate,” she said. “There is some pretty aggressive development going on in Winston-Salem right now, and having art co-creating with development, architecture and engineering provides an opportunity for dialogue and human connections.

“The purpose of murals is to reflect the time and commemorate the moment.”

Last year, Nakima worked on a mural at the Atkins Community Garden, where she met the developers of Winston Junction.

“Max Dubinsky had expressed to them that he was interested in public art in Winston-Salem,” she said. “So someone from Industry Hill connected us.”

When  Dubinsky first moved from Los Angeles to Winston-Salem in 2017, he was pretty stoked about being in a place that calls itself the City of Arts and Innovation.

Then, when he noticed the lack of public art, he was perplexed.

“I remember walking through downtown and seeing all the blank walls,” Dubinsky said. Instead of complaining about it, he got busy. “I started calling business owners to see if they wanted murals.”

Dubinsky, a writer and a video editor, said that he and his wife, Lauren, came here for her job in advertising. They were excited about being in a small, livable city.

“I simply missed the part of living in Los Angeles where you could find and discover new and inspiring art on a regular basis just by taking a walk around the block, and saw an opportunity to bring some of that experience here to Winston,” he said. “It’s exciting and energizing to watch new murals pop-up.

“I want to get murals here, and I want to pay the artists,. Artists deserve to be paid a living wage.”

When he got the go-ahead from the owners of Winston Junction to do a project on the Trade Street wall, he started a grassroots fundraiser to see if he could raise $9,000 to pay Nakima. That’s $30 a square foot for 300 square feet of art.

“Her mural promotes our city’s diversity, as well as promoting unity and harmony with each other and the planet,” Dubinsky said. “She’s quite popular and in-demand right now.”

Within three weeks, he raised the money on GoFundMe. “Just the citizens of Winston-Salem donating $5, $10, $100 – and a few private donors,” Dubinsky said. “It was incredible to see the response to this idea.

“I wanted it to be a community mural and for the city’s residents to feel genuine ownership over it.” No public funds were involved.

“Art goes hand in hand with revitalizing the neighborhood,” Dubinsky said. “Street art is proven to help the economy and neighborhoods around it as mural hunting becomes a form of tourism.

“People come out to see murals, and then they go to restaurants, shops and breweries.”

Both Nakima and Dubinsky felt that it was crucial to have support from the neighborhood before they put their mark on it. They surveyed the neighbors of Winston Junction, including the owners of Earl’s Whiskey Bar; A Stone’s Throw, a fine craft gallery; Ember Audio; and Aware Hot Yoga, a studio opening soon.

“A lot of people have felt left out of the revitalization process in the past,” Nakima said. “As part of our process, we wanted to get community buy-in.” 

Aware studio owner Nikki Kourpias dropped by the mural site while Nakima was working one day recently and expressed her pleasure at what she saw.

“I absolutely love it. I saw Georgie on TV in Charlotte, and I like the things she’s involved in. All my kids were involved with Occupy Winston-Salem. I am thrilled with it,” Kourpias said. “I am really looking for diversity in Winston Junction.

“The painting itself is absolutely stunning. And we’d like to get more murals inside the market.”

“About 25 people chimed in on what they wanted to see,” Dubinsky said. “We wanted to highlight diversity here on the edge of downtown and the edge of East Winston.

“This neighborhood can be a bridge between them.”

Annette Scippio is the council member for the East Ward. She drove by the mural Friday morning her way to City Hall.

“Historically, East Winston stops at U.S. 52, but the mural is at the edge of the East Ward,” Scippio said. “We have to shift people’s mindset that downtown is part of East Winston. A mural won’t bridge the gap by itself.”

Scippio is a big fan of murals, she said: “I spent a lot of time with Dr. John Biggers, and learned that murals are either a reflection of what’s happening, a story of the past, or a vision for the future. I would like to see installations with permanency. 

“I love that we use visual art in public to be thought-provoking and to tell a story or send a message. Public art should have content that brings people together to talk about things

“On this mural there are three people – two women and a man. I saw a blending in all those people – not anybody standing out – homogenized people – and that is a message in and of itself.”

Scippio said that it reminded her of the ’60s and ’70s when everybody was in love with each other. “I didn’t see any trauma,” she said. “It’s more of a vision of where somebody wants the community to be. Who’s going to see it, and what will they see?

“I’d like to see art throughout the community, so this could be the beginning of public space if it’s extended on over into East Winston. When you see art in unusual places, then it becomes the City of the Arts.”

There are more than a dozen blank walls downtown where Dubinsky would like to see murals.

“My goal is to show the city of Winston how important street art is in hopes that more building owners might be inspired to hire other artists,” he said. “I believe that as Winston grows, its art must spill out from the galleries and into the streets.”

Nakima said, “Art is an amazing way to have tough conversations about some of the issues we face.” 

She turned to look at “Synergy,” saying that the surveys she and Dubinsky took guided and inspired her design.

“A lot of people are going through displacement because of gentrification,” Nakima said. “The three faces in the mural show three perspectives. They flow from the same color spectrum. I wanted it to be as site-specific as possible and symbolic of who is here.”