Pauly B X Mica Still – 2025
Legends of the street art scene, Mica Still and Pauly B, come together for the first time on this incredible collaboration that bursts from the wall with colour and personality. These two had so much fun working together on concept and painting, they can’t believe they hadn’t done it before.
Have a read of what Pauly and Mica had to say about their experience partnered together on this amazing wall by reading the description and additional information below.
Artists: Pauly B , Mica Still
Location: Noel Leeming Wall - Alley off of Tamamutu St
Year: 2025
Status: Work in Progress
Words from Pauly:
Mica and I decided from the beginning that we wanted to take a fully collaborative approach - in the sense that we didn’t want people to be able to tell who’d done what. We both are present in all aspects of the design.
We started by having a conversation about general themes and then both doing a lot of pencil drawing which we would upload to a shared drive. We would then make more drawings based on these and on our Zoom conversations. Then we started drawing over and redrawing each other's drawings. Finally, we both worked on combining the elements into the layout of the wall as one composition.
I have performed a lot with bands and to me the best collaborations push people in new directions with their artform while still keeping a strong sense of who they are and what they do. The sum should be greater than the parts.
Mica and I vibed really well - we had robust conversations, but always moving in the same direction, and discovering we have a really similar creative sensibility to each other. Even when we were painting, we were often having the same ideas about what we wanted to edit and how.
Ultimately we achieved what we both think is a really great mural that blends both of our work very well. We also went from knowing each other a little bit to being great mates.
Words from Mica:
I started off stocking Paul's past work to get an idea of what he enjoyed painting. We decided video chats worked best. We could communicate our ideas quickly. We created a shared google docs and dumped a bunch of drawing - we met up three times and decided we could redraw what each of us contribute. We both hold no ego and wanted to be playful. We played around with various elements of our sketches like a collage until something came together. Colour is something important to both of us, so we had fun with choosing colours. We decided early on to melt our vibes rather than have separate elements. I think it worked out well as the image become a magical new representation of Paul and Mica as a team rather than each individual artist.
I feel like I achieved letting go of ego and therefore having a great time. It was a real trust exercise, and it could have gone badly. Sean (artistic director) was thoughtful in his pairing, not just visually but who could work as a team.
I was appreciative of the experience as there are not a lot of opportunities to collaborate on such a scale.
Categories: 2025
