Christine Crawford and Allison Dunavant, known by their business name “Girls Who Paint Murals,” blend their unique artistic styles together to paint murals in Charleston and across the state. Dunavant brings expert skills in painting portraits and figures, while Crawford has a knack for lettering and graphic design.
Dunavant and Crawford are both artists and South Carolina natives. They were painting murals independently and following each other on Instagram when Dunavant first reached out to Crawford for mural painting help at the end of 2021.
“Basically, Allison [Dunavant] had a mural and needed some help with it,” Crawford said. “She was like, ‘They need it done in three days. It’s the biggest wall I’ve ever done, and it’s really not my style at all.’ So I went to Hilton Head, and we just worked really well together. We had both been getting more murals on our own and started asking each other to help constantly. So eventually we were like, ‘Let’s work together. Let’s make this a business.’”
Since officially launching Girls Who Paint Murals at the start of 2022, Crawford and Dunavant have created masterpieces on parking garages, supermarkets, taco restaurants, school hallways, hospital waiting rooms — and the list goes on.
Most of their mural commissions happen in Charleston, where Dunavant is based. Crawford, who is based in Columbia, said they travel all over the state to complete their projects.
“This year has been extremely busy. We did a mural for the city of Conway at a pool that they were revitalizing. Another one this year was at Clemson, which was really awesome because they gave us some creative freedom.”
More favorite murals of the year, Crawford said, included a huge four-panel project at the Columbia Main Street city parking garage. In North Charleston, the girls collaborated with local street artist Riivo Kruuk to create a portrait with a charcoal drawing effect on the wall at Park Circle’s new eatery Odd Duck.
Most recently, they made a massive Richard Pryor portrait for comic Josh Bate’s soon-to-open comedy club Wit’s End on Rivers Avenue, also a collaboration with Kruuk.
“That one was really challenging. We usually use a projector to trace out our designs and get all the proportions right. But there was a streetlight that prevented us from doing that, so we totally free-handed that one,” Crawford said.
The recent collaborations with Kruuk point to a potential for expansion in their business, Crawford said.
“We want to eventually expand and have more people work with us and for us. For large projects, we would love to find some artists we can really trust and that can help to alleviate some of the physical labor.”
Another idea Crawford said she hopes to explore in the new year: a Charleston-based mural festival.
“We are trying to plan a mural festival in Charleston right now,” Crawford said. “It’s in the works. We’re talking to some people and looking for nonprofits to sponsor us. We want to bring more creative murals to the city. That’s really what it’s about. It’s in the very beginning stages right now; hopefully we can do it in 2024.”
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