November 8, 2025 • 10 mins
The powerful new documentary Artfully United, arriving in theaters nationwide on October 17, illuminates art’s ability to bridge gaps and create understanding. Mike Norice rose up from the gang-filled streets of South Central LA to become a visual artist and sneaker-art designer (making custom paintings and sneakers for celebrities such as Elton John, Mariah Carey, Michael B. Jordan, Tom Cruise and many more). He began painting inspiring murals with uplifting messages in the city’s toughest neighborhoods, which led to the Artfully United project — a national, 20-mural series he designed, using his art and vision as an unparalleled source of hope. That project not only brought Norice attention from political leaders and local activists but most crucially, let the children and those in distress know they have potential and hope for a brighter future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, and good morning you too. How are you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm good Arrow. This is Chris Walters and Mike's with
me also.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Two absolutely incredible artists at work because you, first of all,
you're creating space for people who do do the art
or the miurals as well as just doing the graffiti.
You're giving them something to look forward to and to
be inspired by. And man, when I experienced this, it
was like, I really really have a new found respect
for all of this.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What did you guys learn from doing this project, because
you don't just go into something like this without digging
deep and getting into the history and where the energy
is coming from.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, one of the things I'll go first, and I
don't want to speak for Chris, I'll let him speak
for himself. But one of the things that I learned
from this is just community unity and have a community
be based around something or a project that is based
for the community, and how much the community will support
(01:09):
something that gives back that's based on love, you know,
and a lot of everything that I do with my
art is based on love, resilience and inspiration. So just
staying true to oneself, everything else will follow place.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Now now, Chris. One of the things that I learned
with Dolly Parton. She says that country music is where
you would share the news of the localism. I mean,
it's it's become the mirrors. I mean, when something goes
down here in Charlotte, there are miurals and people will
go to those murals to get that experience.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, and and Mike, there's there's a number of murals
that aren't featured in the film, but that to speak
to your point, Mike did one of the most popular
Kendrick Lamar murals in all of LA on the side
of town year year and a half ago whenever it was.
But it was a timely mural, to say the least,
(02:07):
given some of the things that were going on with
him and others in the music world. But as a
community response to your point, it was murals featured on
the side of some of these buildings, I like the
Hope mural. He references how that was during the time
not only did Kobe Bryant pass, but Nipsey Hustle had
(02:28):
just recently been murdered nearby, and to see the murals
go up around La honoring both of their legacies. To
your to your point, arrow was was was powerful.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
One of the things that I noticed, Mike is the
fact that you are precise. I mean, do you do
you sketch it out first before you hit that wall?
Because I mean, I mean, I'm just watching you is music,
and I would love to see, you know, a hip
hop artist or even a country music artist go over
there and watch you and tell me they're not going
to write a song about the magic that you put
to life.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, a lot of preparation goes into the wall. The
actual painting is probably the easiest part, believe it or not.
There's a lot of preparation and backstory to each wall
and scaling and stuff like that. But I use most
of my digital work from the iPad of first before
I get every piece of So, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
What do you when it comes to producing something like this, Chris?
There's got to be something inside you that's going, Okay,
we're going to do this story on Mike, but we've
got to continue it across this nation. In other words,
it's Los Angeles mural art. Let's compare it to Memphis art.
Let's go down to Atlanta. Let's see. Because I don't
think it's regional, but yet it's very regional.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, Los Angeles, as Mike says in the movie, is
the mural capital of the world. I brought Mike out Maine,
where I live on the East Coast, fifteen or so times,
and ten of those, I think at least were commission
art projects, mostly my house and also murals. And similar
(04:05):
to making this movie, it's a beautiful thing to see
his activism because there's a cliche teamwork makes the dream work.
But to do big things on the scale at which
he's doing it, it does require community support. It does
require green lights in a lot of these areas from
stakeholders in the community, official and otherwise. And making the
(04:30):
movie was a similar experience. I brought on board a
good friend of ours, Dave Benner, to help as the director.
I brought over my partners from Feifen who live in Maine,
also in post production. But Mike works with a team
of people. He's also involved with Compton Youth Build, He's
involved with the California Ceasefire Committee. So his activism is
(04:51):
not limited to his solitary expression of art, which is
people seeing him working on these murals. But those murals,
our friend Jason Murray and others there's people that have
been in the trenches since the very beginning assisting with
those So it is a team, team effort to be
able to do anything, whether it's production or activism.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Please do not Move. There's more with Mike and Chris
coming up next. The name of the documentary Artfully United.
We're back with Mike and Chris. Mike. I love the
way that he's saying activism because just recently I did
some research on are we being censored as as activists
in this country? And and chat GPT said no, because
(05:34):
we have the mururor people. We have the people that
will go to the wall and and you know, send
out signals without ever even speaking a word. They let
the painting do the talking themselves. And it's like there's
and you know, you are bringing a form of communication
to our community and beyond.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yes, yes, definitely the murals. Each mural is the speaking
to the community. It's a love letter to that particular
block community and you know eventually throughout the world. So
that's exactly what it's doing. And but it's it's it's
just showing. It's the light in the darkness. You know,
(06:15):
each each wall is becoming just that that level of protection.
You know, a lot of graffiti is on other walls
besides these walls that once was on the wall prior
to the mural. So I'm grateful for that that everyone,
including the streets, is really understanding the message and they're
(06:40):
respecting these murals. See.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And I'm so grateful for you, Chris and what you're
doing because you're proving to the world as well as
this nation that it doesn't have to appear on trains anymore.
It doesn't have to be on the overpass that you
just went under. This right here is in your own
city if you just open your eyes and get more
involved with the community, and you're bringing that forward in
this documentary.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It's been a real honor to be able to work
with Mike and his family, and it's been special from
the very beginning to see the process up close and
personally to understand everything that goes into making these walls. Again,
like Mike said, the preparation, it's a lot like you'll
hear construction workers and finished carpenters say, measure twice, cut once.
(07:29):
So the preparation that goes into it, and that can
be applied to getting the blessing and approval of those
in the area, and it entails working with the business owners.
But the difference being that Mike goes through that process.
So these walls are built to last and endure because
(07:52):
he you know, he got the involvement and blessing early
on New York City, you know, way back in the eighties.
He went through all of that with Finally, the transit
Authority would bring every single graffiti train in and you know,
even allow people to come and tag them up, but
then they paint right over them before they were put
(08:13):
back out onto the tracks days later. This is with
the blessing and the buy in of the neighborhoods, the
building owners, the communities themselves. And every once in a
while there'll still be some random vandalism of one of
the walls, but Michael tell you it's usually the people
in the community, gang members otherwise, that'll reach out to
(08:37):
him that something got you know, defaced and needed to
be cleaned up and is it quickly is addressed. So
there's the buy in and the belief and the identifying
of the people in the community with these walls. And
certainly there's many testimonies in the film of folks that
were feeling suicidal, folks that were feeling tremendous distressed animosity
(09:02):
towards others, feelings of wanting to consider self harm also,
and that these are interventions. This is you know, community
psychology and full effect being applied positively in these neighborhoods
for which he cares so much.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Wow, ten minutes with you guys is not enough, Mike.
Where can we go to find out more about what
you are doing? More importantly about those tennis shoes because
I don't know about you, but here in the Carolinas,
we invest in those shoes. We don't wear them, but
we need to have them in our collections.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, everything with me, it starts with me. It's Mike Norris.
It's real simple. From all social media and then you
can you can find the Our United page and you
can find the Our United doc page from my page.
So that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, what a beautiful project. Please come back to this
show anytime in the future. The door is always going
to be open for you, guys. Thank you, Erro, thank
you you guys be brilliant today.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Okay, I thank your brother, Thank you too,
Hello, and good morning you too. How are you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm good Arrow. This is Chris Walters and Mike's with
me also.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Two absolutely incredible artists at work because you, first of all,
you're creating space for people who do do the art
or the miurals as well as just doing the graffiti.
You're giving them something to look forward to and to
be inspired by. And man, when I experienced this, it
was like, I really really have a new found respect
for all of this.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What did you guys learn from doing this project, because
you don't just go into something like this without digging
deep and getting into the history and where the energy
is coming from.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, one of the things I'll go first, and I
don't want to speak for Chris, I'll let him speak
for himself. But one of the things that I learned
from this is just community unity and have a community
be based around something or a project that is based
for the community, and how much the community will support
(01:09):
something that gives back that's based on love, you know,
and a lot of everything that I do with my
art is based on love, resilience and inspiration. So just
staying true to oneself, everything else will follow place.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Now now, Chris. One of the things that I learned
with Dolly Parton. She says that country music is where
you would share the news of the localism. I mean,
it's it's become the mirrors. I mean, when something goes
down here in Charlotte, there are miurals and people will
go to those murals to get that experience.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, and and Mike, there's there's a number of murals
that aren't featured in the film, but that to speak
to your point, Mike did one of the most popular
Kendrick Lamar murals in all of LA on the side
of town year year and a half ago whenever it was.
But it was a timely mural, to say the least,
(02:07):
given some of the things that were going on with
him and others in the music world. But as a
community response to your point, it was murals featured on
the side of some of these buildings, I like the
Hope mural. He references how that was during the time
not only did Kobe Bryant pass, but Nipsey Hustle had
(02:28):
just recently been murdered nearby, and to see the murals
go up around La honoring both of their legacies. To
your to your point, arrow was was was powerful.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
One of the things that I noticed, Mike is the
fact that you are precise. I mean, do you do
you sketch it out first before you hit that wall?
Because I mean, I mean, I'm just watching you is music,
and I would love to see, you know, a hip
hop artist or even a country music artist go over
there and watch you and tell me they're not going
to write a song about the magic that you put
to life.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, a lot of preparation goes into the wall. The
actual painting is probably the easiest part, believe it or not.
There's a lot of preparation and backstory to each wall
and scaling and stuff like that. But I use most
of my digital work from the iPad of first before
I get every piece of So, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
What do you when it comes to producing something like this, Chris?
There's got to be something inside you that's going, Okay,
we're going to do this story on Mike, but we've
got to continue it across this nation. In other words,
it's Los Angeles mural art. Let's compare it to Memphis art.
Let's go down to Atlanta. Let's see. Because I don't
think it's regional, but yet it's very regional.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, Los Angeles, as Mike says in the movie, is
the mural capital of the world. I brought Mike out Maine,
where I live on the East Coast, fifteen or so times,
and ten of those, I think at least were commission
art projects, mostly my house and also murals. And similar
(04:05):
to making this movie, it's a beautiful thing to see
his activism because there's a cliche teamwork makes the dream work.
But to do big things on the scale at which
he's doing it, it does require community support. It does
require green lights in a lot of these areas from
stakeholders in the community, official and otherwise. And making the
(04:30):
movie was a similar experience. I brought on board a
good friend of ours, Dave Benner, to help as the director.
I brought over my partners from Feifen who live in Maine,
also in post production. But Mike works with a team
of people. He's also involved with Compton Youth Build, He's
involved with the California Ceasefire Committee. So his activism is
(04:51):
not limited to his solitary expression of art, which is
people seeing him working on these murals. But those murals,
our friend Jason Murray and others there's people that have
been in the trenches since the very beginning assisting with
those So it is a team, team effort to be
able to do anything, whether it's production or activism.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Please do not Move. There's more with Mike and Chris
coming up next. The name of the documentary Artfully United.
We're back with Mike and Chris. Mike. I love the
way that he's saying activism because just recently I did
some research on are we being censored as as activists
in this country? And and chat GPT said no, because
(05:34):
we have the mururor people. We have the people that
will go to the wall and and you know, send
out signals without ever even speaking a word. They let
the painting do the talking themselves. And it's like there's
and you know, you are bringing a form of communication
to our community and beyond.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yes, yes, definitely the murals. Each mural is the speaking
to the community. It's a love letter to that particular
block community and you know eventually throughout the world. So
that's exactly what it's doing. And but it's it's it's
just showing. It's the light in the darkness. You know,
(06:15):
each each wall is becoming just that that level of protection.
You know, a lot of graffiti is on other walls
besides these walls that once was on the wall prior
to the mural. So I'm grateful for that that everyone,
including the streets, is really understanding the message and they're
(06:40):
respecting these murals. See.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
And I'm so grateful for you, Chris and what you're
doing because you're proving to the world as well as
this nation that it doesn't have to appear on trains anymore.
It doesn't have to be on the overpass that you
just went under. This right here is in your own
city if you just open your eyes and get more
involved with the community, and you're bringing that forward in
this documentary.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It's been a real honor to be able to work
with Mike and his family, and it's been special from
the very beginning to see the process up close and
personally to understand everything that goes into making these walls. Again,
like Mike said, the preparation, it's a lot like you'll
hear construction workers and finished carpenters say, measure twice, cut once.
(07:29):
So the preparation that goes into it, and that can
be applied to getting the blessing and approval of those
in the area, and it entails working with the business owners.
But the difference being that Mike goes through that process.
So these walls are built to last and endure because
(07:52):
he you know, he got the involvement and blessing early
on New York City, you know, way back in the eighties.
He went through all of that with Finally, the transit
Authority would bring every single graffiti train in and you know,
even allow people to come and tag them up, but
then they paint right over them before they were put
(08:13):
back out onto the tracks days later. This is with
the blessing and the buy in of the neighborhoods, the
building owners, the communities themselves. And every once in a
while there'll still be some random vandalism of one of
the walls, but Michael tell you it's usually the people
in the community, gang members otherwise, that'll reach out to
(08:37):
him that something got you know, defaced and needed to
be cleaned up and is it quickly is addressed. So
there's the buy in and the belief and the identifying
of the people in the community with these walls. And
certainly there's many testimonies in the film of folks that
were feeling suicidal, folks that were feeling tremendous distressed animosity
(09:02):
towards others, feelings of wanting to consider self harm also,
and that these are interventions. This is you know, community
psychology and full effect being applied positively in these neighborhoods
for which he cares so much.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Wow, ten minutes with you guys is not enough, Mike.
Where can we go to find out more about what
you are doing? More importantly about those tennis shoes because
I don't know about you, but here in the Carolinas,
we invest in those shoes. We don't wear them, but
we need to have them in our collections.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, everything with me, it starts with me. It's Mike Norris.
It's real simple. From all social media and then you
can you can find the Our United page and you
can find the Our United doc page from my page.
So that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Well, what a beautiful project. Please come back to this
show anytime in the future. The door is always going
to be open for you, guys. Thank you, Erro, thank
you you guys be brilliant today.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Okay, I thank your brother, Thank you too,
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