Artist:
Chapin Art Trail
A Community Art Project
Talk of the Town
Alicia Leeke
Installed September 2025
Artist's Statement
I grew up spending my summers boating, skiing, sailing and swimming in the coves on Lake Murray near Hilton and Chapin. For this public art mural, I wanted to portray not only what the area was known for historically – like the fact that Lake Murray is a man-made lake – but also home to many types of fish, turtles and birds.
Chapin offers a wide variety of recreational activities from fishing tournaments and parades to family picnics and purple martin viewings; but the area also has a touch of folklore.
My goal was to create a beautiful, colorful and interactive mural the City of Chapin and residents can be proud of on the side of one of Chapin’s newest restaurant additions – “The Shack.”
About the Artwork
“Talk of the Town” is a large mural painted across the entire side of a building in downtown Chapin. It was painted in very durable high quality and weather resistant water based paint. The design and finish were both done by artist Alicia Leeke.
From the artist: "My large-scale murals serve as public dialogues, translating abstract concepts like community and interconnectedness into vibrant, accessible visuals. I am drawn to themes of urban renewal and local history and my process involves exploring a building's architecture and its surrounding neighborhood to find a visual language that speaks to the community's unique identity.
Using a combination of traditional painting techniques and other methodology, I ensure the final piece is not only aesthetically integrated but also deeply rooted in the location. The expansive scale allows me to create immersive experiences that encourage viewers to pause, reflect, and see their community in a new light.
My goal is to transform this public space into a canvas for shared stories, fostering a sense of place and pride for all who encounter the artwork. The Talk of the Town interactive mural is inspired by local folklore and history found in the Chapin/Lake Murray Community.
While daily factors of work, and headline news bombard us each day, this work strives to bring fun and playfulness to visitors. Viewers can find an alligator, turtles, purple martins and other creatures found around this man-made lake. The goal of this colorful mural is entice viewers to show us their "selfies" by taking photos of themselves in front of the mural which includes the areas most recent Bigfoot sighting and posting them to their social media with the tags:
#AliciaLeekeContemporaryAmericanPainter, #showusyourselfies, @theshackChapin, and #bigfoot."
About the Artist
Alicia Leeke, a native South Carolinian is a contemporary American fine art painter, visual arts educator and an Accredited Mural Artist.
Her travels to paint landscapes led her to produce a body of beautiful abstract paintings inspired by nature’s ever-changing scenery.
Leeke compares a series of art in a body of work to that of multiple product lines in sales. This means she has paintings produced in a series over time including abstract textural landscapes, impressionistic landscapes, French cityscapes, and an abstract body of work based on plankton.
Alicia Leeke is best known for her brightly painted public art murals and other public art projects that range from murals to permanent installations of animals. Mural and project inspiration is site-specific and varies based on the needs of the project. Often a public art project needs to blend into the facility, make a bold impact statement or portray a theme. Some of the themes in her work include nature, people and animals.
Leeke was awarded a grant by the Charleston Scientific and Cultural Education Fund to produce a traveling exhibition entitled View from Under the Microscope: Science-based Learning Through Art. The exhibition educates the non-scientific community about the importance Phytoplankton play in our life and why we need to be good stewards of our water bodies. This body of work is currently traveling.
She is also a grant recipient from the Joan Mitchell Foundation located in New York City. She is an international, award-winning artist whose work is collected around the globe from New York City to Finland, Austria, Dubai and beyond.
Scavenger Hunt Clue:
A Partnership Project by the Crooked Creek Art League and the Town of Chapin
This organization is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support in this grant comes from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of The Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina.
This project was supported by a Connected Communities grant from Central Carolina Community Foundation.
