♪♪ Gabi Torres: I love so much about this town.

I love the people, I love the landscape, I love the opportunities that are here.

It's known for the lumber barons that came and had their mills here.

And one of the factoids you learn as a kid growing up is like, oh yeah, at one point in time it had the most millionaires per capita in the United States or something, maybe for like a year or two, but still.

And I think now we're known for our riverfront.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: I think that we're known for our Eagle Point Park area as well.

And hopefully we're going to be known for having a really incredible arts and culture scene here.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: I am a first-generation Latina here in Clinton, Iowa.

So, my mom is from Argentina.

My dad was from Mexico.

And they met actually in Boston.

My dad came over to America to finish off his medical training and my mom was here to learn English and eventually life brought them here to Clinton, Iowa.

I just feel so tied and connected to a place that embraced my family and made them feel like they could make this home and call it home and feel like there was nowhere else they'd rather be.

Gabi Torres: I've always just been, I guess, what someone would call a creative person.

I want to do something really drippy.

Gabi Torres: I didn't really start art as I do it now until a lot later in my life.

Well, hot dog!

Gabi Torres: My dad was just like, you know, he was really the one who gave me the courage to really believe in myself and take the next step.

I am so stoked.

I might have just -- I might have a new series.

Gabi Torres: I was working as a marketing and development director for our local YWCA at the time and he was like, you know, anyone can do that job, but not everyone can be an artist, and you should just spread your wings and just see what happens.

He really gave me his blessing.

That really was a turning point in my life.

♪♪ The red, the blue, skip over one, the red and then the other red, and that big one there.

That was from a show called Wild.

Gabi Torres: You know, this was the guy who was like, you go to school, you become a lawyer, and you follow this path and then by the end of his life, right before he really got sick with Alzheimer's he was just like, life is too short and you have to live your dreams.

I just felt really compelled to try to use art as a vehicle for doing something positive and impactful.

And if I could make a difference, I should, because that's what my dad would have wanted.

And I think that's really what he meant when he wanted me to be a full-time artist, to do it not just for me, but for other, for the betterment if I could for our town, a place that he adored.

Gabi Torres: So, this past year has been amazing.

It has just been full of projects.

♪♪ Grow Clinton is just beyond excited to celebrate Gabibird Art Studio and the second annual reception opening of The Grove.

Gabi Torres: So, The Grove really came out of a desire to create public art that would be accessible to everyone and would be very immersive.

So, that's where I came up with the concept of creating an art forest and that you could walk through the installation and get as close to the art as you wanted, you could touch it if you wanted to, and that it would be an outdoor experience so that way it would be free.

So, that's The Grove.

Gabi Torres: I look at empty buildings and empty lots and I don't see ugliness, I just see possibility.

To me, that is the best blank canvas.

It's like, how do I create beauty in a place that most people consider ugly or an eye sore?

How do you change that?

My big love and passion project is the Paint It Back Art Festival that Chris and I do together, Chris Shannon, and we're creating this really incredible vibrancy in a part of town that really was needing that.

(train whistle) Gabi Torres: You are here in Clinton, Iowa at what we refer to as the Toyota building.

(train whistle) Gabi Torres: This building has sort of just been sitting vacant for many years, at least a decade.

And so, I had the idea, along with my partner, we had an idea that we would try to, if it was going to be sitting here, we could activate the space through public art and through murals.

And essentially the idea was this, over one week in August we would invite artists, both local and national artists, to come and spend a week painting, wrapping the building in murals.

Each artist is able to pick their concept and theme.

There were no limitations.

The only real rule we had was that it was family friendly and there was something for everyone.

But basically, this is just a big celebration of this building and the revitalization of it.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: And I have to tell you, since we've been working here it has been crazy.

The number of cars that drive by has increased.

I've even had a local business, the business owner drove by to just say, this is awesome and thank you because since you have been doing this, my sales have increased.

This is why it matters.

It creates a sense of place.

It gives us an identity and I think can be sort of an anchor point for the Lyons District and help us move towards creating an arts and cultural district here to attract visitors and sort of just get more people to come and visit our community.

♪♪ ♪♪ Gabi Torres: Wildness, literally that just came out of a desire to do a more intensive collaboration with Clinton County Conservation, and also to try to implement an artist residency.

So, not only am I creating pieces of art using natural materials from their park areas, they also were kind enough to give me a cabin as a studio, which is really awesome.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: So, this idea, I was really interested in figuring out a way to make art that was less damaging to the environment.

I love working with acrylic and spray paint, but it's also really toxic and terrible.

Ooh, we're going to have to wipe down that wall.

Gabi Torres: It really just stemmed from a desire to be able to know how to make pigments and things and to make art that was maybe a little bit more environmentally mindful.

I'm not looking for perfection in any way because it's not about that.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: I think maybe each piece tells a little story and I might not even know what the story is.

That actually looks really cool.

I'm pleased with that.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: My purpose and overall goal is to use art as a way to create change and to make a positive impact on where I live and my community and the people who share this awesome place with me.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: It has always been about my town and how I can try to make a difference with my town.

So, all of those projects are very much tied to place in some sense.

So, The Grove was this park that we transformed into an outdoor art gallery and made a little art forest there.

Paint It Back obviously transformed a building.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: And Wildness is about our park areas that we have here and then hopefully -- obviously the connective thread in addition to that is these are places that we hope people will come and see.

♪♪ Gabi Torres: Art can be the game changer for a lot of places.

If you make something really interesting and beautiful or just creative and unique, people will come to visit it.

I just really hope that other people can feel inspired and feel empowered to do things and to just take those risks.

This story can be anybody's story, really it can.

I've had a lot of resources and I have been very lucky.

And there's also nothing special about me or what I do.

Anyone can do it and I just hope more people will because our towns are worth saving, our towns are worth fighting for, our towns are worth investing in and there's so much opportunity in places like this.

♪♪