The Color Wave Mission

Color Wave’s mission is to enrich lakeland’s cultural landscape through large-scale public art that celebrates community, creativity, & place by bring renowned and emerging mural artists together with local businesses and neighborhoods.

Color Wave transforms shared spaces into vibrant landmarks that inspire pride, connection, and dialogue. The festival aims to activate downtown corridors, support local economies, amplify diverse voices, and make art accessible to all—using murals as a catalyst for community engagement, education, and long-lasting cultural impact.

A woman painting a large, colorful mural of a tiger's face on a wall, using bright colors and bold patterns, with art supplies and a yellow ladder nearby.

Our Vision

Our vision is to beautify urban spaces while uplifting the local businesses that define our community. Color Wave is built on three pillars

  • Color Wave Walls shows up as a hopeful exchange between artists from different parts of the world alongside our local art scene and the everyday life of Lakeland. The festival brings together muralists who carry global perspectives, styles, and experiences, and invites them to connect with the unique stories, textures, and spirit of the community they’re painting in. In that meeting point, something special happens, international creativity doesn’t replace the local voice, it listens to it, learns from it, and builds with it. The result is artwork that feels both expansive and rooted: murals that carry the energy of a wider world while still reflecting the people, places, and pride of Lakeland. It becomes a reminder that our local stories are part of something much bigger, and that creativity can connect us all while still honoring where we come from.

  • Color Wave Walls is helping foster the next generation of muralists by making the process of creating large-scale public art visible, approachable, and deeply human. One of the most powerful parts of the festival is the quiet “if you see it, you can be it” moment—when young artists and community members watch murals come to life on the same streets they walk every day. Seeing professional artists paint massive works in real time turns something that can feel distant or out of reach into something tangible and possible. Through that presence, along with opportunities for conversation, mentorship, and hands-on involvement, the festival gently opens a door for emerging creatives to imagine themselves in those roles. It plants a sense of belonging in the creative world right here in Lakeland, showing that their ideas, voices, and future work can take up space on the walls of their own city.

  • Color Wave Walls brings cultural dialogue to life by transforming downtown Lakeland into a shared canvas where art, community, and place meet in meaningful ways. Through large-scale murals on local buildings, the festival creates open, accessible stories that reflect the spirit, history, and evolving identity of the city. It invites artists, property owners, and residents into a collaborative process that feels welcoming and connected, turning public art into a shared experience rather than something separate or distant. In doing so, the festival helps spark conversation, pride, and imagination across Lakeland while linking the city to a broader world of creative expression and possibility.

A woman painting a colorful mural on a wall outdoors, standing on a scaffold with paint cans nearby.

Meet The Team

Meet The Team

Two women in work uniforms laughing and smiling at each other, one holding a paintbrush and the other holding a sponge.
Two women in work uniforms laughing and smiling at each other, one holding a paintbrush and the other holding a sponge.

Gillian Fazio and Katerina Santos are accomplished visual artists with a combined two decades of experience in large-scale mural work.

Meet Gillian Fazio

A woman in a white jumpsuit sitting on the floor, smiling and holding a paintbrush. Multiple paint cans are stacked nearby, against a blue brick wall.
A blue, spiky, sun-shaped graphic with numerous irregular, wavy rays extending outward from a central circle.

Co-Founder of Color wave Walls

Fazio, a Lakeland native and award-winning muralist, is known for her richly detailed, whimsical nature-inspired compositions that explore the interplay between organic forms and patterns. With a keen understanding of what resonates with Lakeland’s residents, Fazio has consistently demonstrated an ability to create public art that reflects and enhances the community’s cultural identity. 

@GFAZIOART

Young woman with long dark hair, wearing a black t-shirt, white artistic painted shorts, and sneakers, standing on a red lift platform in front of a large, detailed mural of a cow's face, smiling and pointing at the mural.
A paint-covered bucket featuring images of Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Pluto, with paintbrushes and a paint roller inside, all showing signs of regular use.

Meet Katerina Santos

A young woman with long dark hair sitting on a cloth surrounded by paint cans, holding a paintbrush, with a painted blue brick wall in the background.
A blue, stylized sun with irregular, wavy rays extending outward.

Co-Founder of Color Wave Walls

Santos is an artist recognized for her dynamic use of color and her collaborative work under the TRATOS moniker. Her practice emphasizes a layered and expressive approach to public art, shaped by international projects and participation in acclaimed mural festivals. In 2023, she relocated to Lakeland, Florida, marking a pivotal step in her career. 

@11TRATOS

A young woman is painting a colorful mural on an exterior wall using a paintbrush. She is standing on a scaffold and is wearing a white T-shirt, navy shorts, and wireless earbuds. The mural features abstract shapes and bright colors, and the sky is clear with some clouds visible.
Two metal paint cans with labels and a handle, one stacked on top of the other.

As co-organizers of Lakeland’s forthcoming mural festival, they unite their distinct practices in a shared vision:

to cultivate meaningful public art that engages, inspires, and elevates the cultural fabric of the city.