French artist Erwin Dazelle's murals add 'fun, excitement' to One Daytona hotel

DAYTONA BEACH — As unusual as it may be for locals to hear that a French artist is painting two murals at the Daytona Hotel in One Daytona, his art proves he is not a stranger to the area — or the racing that takes place across the street.

Erwin Dazelle has been working in the United States for 20 years and has been in Daytona Beach since 2010. He completed his murals last week, part of an effort to incorporate more artwork into One Daytona. One Daytona is located on International Speedway Boulevard, directly across from Daytona International Speedway.

Working with the right people in the past few years gave Dazelle the opportunity to add his artistic voice to the Daytona Hotel.

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Dazelle had been working with Gallery 500, an art gallery located right next to the hotel, when representatives from One Daytona approached him with the idea for a mural.

In about 10 days, Dazelle used two walls outside the hotel to paint murals depicting the area's beaches and racing at the speedway.

Dazelle said he included as much detail to both murals as he could.

“I grew up in a stained glass master family,” Dazelle said. “I grew up with the colors and the black lines, so that’s why I work like that now.”

In the speedway painting Dazelle lines up different kinds of cars to represent the history of the track. The mural also includes cheering fans, the speedway’s landscape, and even the trace of a rocket going into space as Daytona Beach residents would see it.

For the beach mural, Dazelle said he drew inspiration from the times he has been to the beach and observed the scene over the years. He painted a typical beachside day with surfers, lifeguards, vehicles parked on the sand, and several beachgoers enjoying the beach in their own ways.

Dazelle's inspiration as an artist comes from “books, sketching, and traditional French artists,” but also from American artists such as Norman Rockwell. (Rockwell once spent a week in Daytona Beach drawing some beach scenes.)

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'It's a mix of everything'

“I think I’m actual, even if I grew up in a traditional way,” he said. “I’m from the '70s, so I grew up in the 80s, 90s. I have all these games, cartoons, Japanese, American, European. It’s a mix of everything. I hope it’s talking to people, and they can see it.”

During his time working with stained glass art in his home country, Dazelle said that he worked with other people to build the idea for projects. Such input is something he values greatly.

“With stained glass it was like that, people would come into the studio and we would build something with the customer,” he said. “It’s the same (painting), but with my own spirit and my own identity as an artist. Every time is a different experience and every time it’s special.”

He said that no matter what he is painting and in what style, he keeps his own “harmony of colors, so people can recognize my work because of the melody of the colors.”

“Most of the time people say ‘we’ve seen your work and recognized it’. So for me, (it's) one of the most important things you must have to stay as an artist for years,” Dazelle said.

Dazelle doesn’t shy away from using colors and making them as vibrant as he can — a characteristic that Gallery 500 Director Amber O’Neal thought would fit with the idea for the mural.

“I knew Erwin’s work would be perfect,” she said. “His colors, his patterns, they’re so bold and joyful, and it works really well.”

O’Neal said Dazelle’s work evokes a feeling of excitement, which she was pleased to see as he began painting the murals last week.

She said the way Dazelle’s art looks reminds her of not only the murals and art scene in Paris (where she went for grad school), but also of how the consistency of that city’s aesthetic makes it beautiful.

“They really do everything to beautify the city to attract viewers — the water fountains are beautiful, the entry ways to the subway are beautiful,” O’Neal said. “It’s something that I think here in America we’ve kind of lost, but I see a resurgence in that support of the local arts and making everything beautiful again.”

She said Dazelle's murals will be added to the Daytona Beach Mural Trail, a website where the city is documenting murals around town, so visitors know where they are.

“He could have just done cars driving on a pretty beach, but he decided to focus on people on the beach — family, fun, excitement. The same with the track with the fans,” O’Neal said. “Everything from the subjects to his colors entice that reaction with his work.”

Dazelle said he also wants to work on projects related to “sea life, fishing, boats, Floridian life, wildlife.” He said he intends to keep people as part of these projects because “we are part of the wildlife — we can destroy it and we can save it.”

“I think what makes a place or an area is the mix of everything in that environment. It’s not only one thing,” he said. “It’s like what I do. If I just use red, it won’t be an art piece, but I use all the colors, and the vibrations of the different colors make this special.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Erwin Dazelle paints speedway, beach life murals at Daytona Hotel