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Erin Tobey paints murals herself, but she’s not really doing it alone

Muralist and musician Erin Tobey at work on the Science of Scale mural on the east side of The Kirkwood Apartments, 315 W Kirkwood Ave in Bloomington
Muralist and musician Erin Tobey at work on the Science of Scale mural on the east side of The Kirkwood Apartments, 315 W Kirkwood Ave in Bloomington

Erin Tobey has always been finding any outlet she can express her creativity. She moved to Bloomington in 2003, after playing in bands since she was sixteen. Nowadays, Erin Tobey works as a visual artist, painting murals, illustrations, and graphic design all over town. She also plays in a few bands including Full Sun and Brenda’s Friend. As a muralist, she’s painted for clients such as Wonderlab, Bloomingfoods, and the City of Bloomington. Her work is as much about developing relationships with people and environment where the mural will exist as it is designing the images, or doing the painting. Her goal? Making Bloomington’s visual landscape more fun.

Music by Brenda's Friend.

Alex Chambers runs WFIU’s arts desk, and produces and hosts WFIU’s Inner States, a weekly podcast and radio show about arts, culture, and ideas from southern Indiana and beyond. He’s the co-creator of How to Survive the Future, a podcast about the present, produced in partnership with Indiana Humanities. He has a PhD in American Studies, with a dissertation called Climate Violence and the Poetics of Refuge, and a book of poems called Bindings: A Preparation, about domestic life and empire. In his spare time, he teaches audio storytelling at the IU Media School. When he’s not in the woods gathering sound, you might see him out for a run on the streets of Bloomington.