“In 2012 I moved with my wife Anne into a large two story building down an unused Laneway in Windsor inner city Melbourne. The Laneway was filled with graffiti with brick walls running both sides of the entire city block spilling out into a large car park.
Encouraged by Anne, I started painting murals down one side of the then unnamed laneway. I then invited a group of young enthusiastic street artists to come one week end and blitz the place! Word got around and very soon, Stonnington Council and the building owners got on board and funding began to roll in. Over a period of 4 years, the Laneway was named ‘Artists Lane’ by the Council, and turned into one of Melbourne’s more interesting and vibrant ‘Street Art Laneways’ with artists from all over the world coming to paint. Next I set up annual Laneway festivals where thousands came to enjoy the art, the food music and dancing. Anne and I left the Laneway completely transformed in 2016 to move to country Victoria.
It was during the development of Artists Lane that I met fellow artist Heesco Khosnaran and went on the develop a long standing partnership that has produced many art precinct projects around Australia. The most recent is the award winning Heesco Town in Yarram Victoria.”
Wayne McCarthy-Tindall
