Brewing Community in Orlando: How Danny Forester Keeps the City’s Culture Alive
January 27, 2025
The Barber Shop Beneath the Garage in Downtown Orlando
February 6, 2025
From Music to Murals: SKIP Transforms Orlando’s Art Scene
SKIP is a pivotal creative force in Orlando, transforming the city's landscape with vibrant murals, art installations, and collaborative projects that celebrate and elevate our local culture. He's one of Orlando's Bside Artists and has been curating the annual Bside Artists Group Exhibit at CityArts for the last six years.
SKIP, whose full name is Justin Skipper, came to Orlando to attend UCF for Music Performance and later transitioned to Valencia where he studied Audio Recording and Engineering. He soon became a full time musician and performer, and would tour, make albums and work with a guy named Swamburger from the Solillaquists of Sound.
Chris "Tobar" Rodriguez, who was part of the B Side Artists, noticed the creative album artwork SKIP was creating and encouraged him to channel his visual storytelling into actual artwork, leading to his first solo art show and sparking his journey as a visual artist.
“We would do these live paintings and impromptu art markets downtown and they invited me to try and take some of my creative ideas from designing albums, the visualization with my music videos, all the creativity I brought with everything, and try to create some artwork.”
The B Side Artists is Orlando's longest running annual group exhibit in Orlando over at CityArts Gallery every year. SKIP said, “If you go around the Orlando area, pretty much all of the larger projects that you see, whether they are art projects on the ground or on walls, inside and outside, are probably done by a B Side artist.”
Some of SKIP’s art includes “The Babysitter” where a child is sitting in front of an old school TV, the brightly-colored asphalt murals and vibrant crosswalks in multiple intersections in downtown, as well as the art on display at the corner of Orange Ave. and Pine St. for the DTO Live exhibit.
SKIP is the owner of A Pivotal Character, a creative company through which he offers a range of artistic services including murals, art installations, project management, and consulting for creative initiatives. It serves as both his personal brand and a platform to collaborate with clients, bringing vibrant, community-focused art to Orlando and beyond.
When we met up with SKIP for this story, he was installing a mural on the front wall of Jeff’s Bagel Run in Winter Park. The mural brings in elements of the Winter Park area including lakes, parks, Rollins College, a peacock and of course a signature brand asset of Jeff’s Bagel Run.
When we asked how he defines the Orlando Life, SKIP said, "it’s having the ability to push through in what you do and effect more change than you could if you were in LA or NYC."
For more content on local Orlando, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on our socials
