Baltimore woman transforms neighborhood with artistic mosaics

BALTIMORE —

Sometimes change just needs a visionary, like a woman who used her skills as an artist to transform a neighborhood.

“It’s a big change. It’s a big change. Nice clean block now. (It) used to be terrible around here,”Lewis Smith, a 35-year resident of the Harwood community said.

The 300 block of east Lorraine Avenue has gotten a huge facelift thanks to Tamara Payne, a community activist and artist. The mosaic-tiled house number signs and the hanging baskets are her touch.

“I just said, ‘I’m (going to) do house by house,'” Payne said. “I had a vision of seeing something brighter and beautiful.”

When Payne moved to the neighborhood in 2007, more than half of the block was vacant. The MICA graduate said she was determined to make it better.

“When I purchased my home, of course (I did) my exterior. Being the creative person, I am I started doing my mailbox and doing the house number signs,” Payne said.

Some neighbors commissioned Payne to do their addresses. Others could not afford to hire her, so the organization Strong City gave her money to do the rest of the mosaics. She still freshens up each the flower boxes each season, using a lot of her own funds.

“Most importantly, as a community artist, it’s about community building and bringing people together. But then it has them take ownership of their neighborhood,” Payne said.

Little by little, residents started sprucing up the outside of their homes with flowers and keeping their sidewalks clean. Payne’s work also affected the drug dealers who had been hanging out on the corner.

Read more of the WBALTV 11 article here.