Christina Leigh Selected as Finalist for Inaugural Starland Mural Festival
Savannah artist Christina Leigh named one of seven finalists for community-driven public art competition with “Starland Constellation,” a celestial map exploring the history, creativity, and connections of Savannah’s Starland District.
SAVANNAH, Ga. | September 4, 2026 — Savannah-based artist Christina Leigh of CLR Creations has been selected as one of seven finalists for the inaugural Starland Mural Festival, a community-driven public art competition celebrating the creativity, culture, and character of Savannah’s Starland District.
Artists were invited to respond to one central question: “What does ‘Starland Soul’ mean to you?”
Her response, Starland Constellation, is a 3 × 5 ft celestial map based on the actual streets of central Starland. Inspired by historic star charts and celestial birth maps, the mural reimagines the neighborhood as a constellation shaped by the people, businesses, artists, and gathering places that give it life.
Within the composition, Starland’s streets become constellations. A bull represents Bull Street, paintbrushes recognize the neighborhood’s visual artists, outstretched hands symbolize community, and a lyre represents the performing arts. Bright white stars mark significant neighborhood businesses and gathering places.
At the center of the composition is Starland’s historic red star, honoring the Starland Dairy that helped give the district its name and identity. The star accurately points north, allowing the artwork to function as both a neighborhood map and a directional compass.
“For me, Starland Soul is the story of a place continually shaped by the people who gather, create, work, and dream within it,” Christina says. “Like a constellation, Starland’s identity comes from connection. Individual places become something larger when viewed together.”
The concept continues Leigh’s ongoing exploration of place, memory, history, and identity through abstract cartography. Through CLR Creations, she creates paintings that consider maps as records of lived experience, exploring the ways landscapes and destinations become part of the people who encounter them.
Starland Constellation also expands upon Leigh’s developing Savannah body of work, which examines the city and surrounding coastal landscape through its waterways, neighborhoods, cultural histories, landmarks, and communities.
The finalist selection comes during a growing season for her work in Savannah. Her exhibition, The Places We Carry, is currently on view at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus through November 1, 2026. The exhibition brings together work inspired by Savannah, New Zealand, and Seville, exploring how the places we encounter continue to shape memory and identity long after we leave them.
Being selected for the inaugural Starland Mural Festival offers another opportunity to bring those ideas into a public setting and to create a work specifically rooted in the community it represents.
“Maps usually tell us where things are,” Christina says. “I’m interested in what they can tell us about who we are, what we remember, and how a place becomes meaningful. Starland Constellation is a map of the neighborhood, but it is also a map of connection.”
About Christina Leigh | CLR Creations
Christina Leigh is a Savannah-based artist and founder of CLR Creations, an independent art practice centered on abstract cartography and the relationship between place, experience, and identity. Her paintings combine geographic references, cultural histories, memory, color, and abstraction to explore the ways destinations become part of our personal and collective stories.
Her work invites viewers to consider the places they carry with them and the connections between geography, memory, and belonging.
Artist: Christina Leigh
Studio: CLR Creations
Artwork:Starland Constellation
Festival: Inaugural Starland Mural Festival
Location: Savannah, Georgia
About the Venue
The murals will be created at Starland Village, 2213 Bull Street, a growing mixed-use development in the heart of Savannah’s Starland District that is incorporating artist studios, gallery space, and public art as part of its vision to become a new creative destination for the neighborhood.
Press Contact
High-resolution artwork images, artist portraits, exhibition images, artist biography, CV, and interview requests are available for media use upon request.
