NBC Escape Routes / Team Black / Atlanta
Atlanta muralist Corey Barksdale teamed up with Drew Konzelman and Derek Konzelman as "Team Black" to paint a live, four-hour mural for NBC's Escape Routes — and won the competition by public vote.
The competition
NBC's Escape Routes brought live mural painting to a public audience in Atlanta, pitting teams of artists against a four-hour clock. Corey Barksdale competed as part of Team Black alongside fellow Atlanta artists Drew Konzelman and Derek Konzelman, with Lawrence Andrade documenting the process behind the camera.
Rather than a jury, the competition put the result to a public vote — and Team Black won the overall Escape Routes Competition.
The mural came together as a two-part composition — a noir-toned figure set against an Atlanta-style skyline on one half, a vivid cubist portrait wrapped in roses on the other — with the team working sections of the wall simultaneously to beat the clock. It's the kind of fast, freehanded, in-public painting that still defines Corey's live event work today.
On camera
Both videos from the competition are still up on YouTube, comments and all — including the "VOTE FOR TEAM BLACK" call that helped carry the win.
4-Hour Mural
Team Black in Progress
Escape Routes compressed the mural process into a single afternoon — no lengthy proposal process, no community input sessions, just paint, a wall, and a deadline in front of a live audience.
Corey Barksdale, Drew Konzelman, and Derek Konzelman painted; Lawrence Andrade shot photography of the team at work, capturing the process as it happened.
The public vote went to Team Black — a win that's stayed part of Corey's story ever since, cited alongside his other featured mural projects. See the full Work gallery for more.
Helpful project answers
A live mural painting competition staged in Atlanta, where teams of artists raced the clock to complete a mural and the public voted for their favorite.
Corey Barksdale, Drew Konzelman, and Derek Konzelman painted the mural, with Lawrence Andrade shooting photography of the process.
Four hours, working live in front of a public audience.
Yes. Team Black won the overall Escape Routes Competition by public vote.
Work with Corey Barksdale
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