A pair of nursery murals and... an announcement!!!

Hi everyone!

So, I'm betting with a subject line like that, you can probably guess what the "announcement" part is..... I'm pregnant! I'm due in June and my husband and I cannot wait to meet our little one. :) We both have pictured ourselves as parents, and it's hard to believe that it's actually happening! Be sure to check back soon - the next thing I'm posting is our little boo's bedroom wall (because of course that was going to get mural-ed). Exciting times ahead!!

There's a cute mural-related part of the story too: I share a due date with a client of mine! I worked for this family about a year and a half ago, on their first child's bedroom. They wanted a more simple, subtle look as the backdrop to baby girl's crib (the first two pics below are that first mural). The room was already painted in a light neutral grey, and they asked that I use colors from the rest of the color swatches within that paint chip to create a northwest-y mountain-scape. We added some strong fir trees dotting the hillsides. I love that it's whimsical, but also so classic and simple - it doesn't shout for attention (very unlike what I'll be showing you for our little one's wall - but I mean, it's my job - how could I NOT go all out in my own house?!). 

When this lovely client reached out to me again recently to tell me that she's pregnant with her second babe, and wanted me to paint another room, I was so excited! I shared with her that I'm pregnant as well, we found out we are due within a couple of days of each other. The universe is so cool sometimes. 

For the second mural, we stuck to the same color palette and nature theme, only this time, with birch trees (third picture down). I have to admit, working with house paint is such a different animal. It dries like 4 shades darker than you see in the can when it's wet... messes with my mind! But I do love it for projects like these. There's really nothing better than cans of quality interior paint when you want a very flat and even finish. We used Benjamin Moore's Natura paint. Did you know Benjamin Moore eliminated VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds - the ozone depleting nasties that get released) from ALL their paint about 6 years ago? That was an awesome thing to find out at the paint store. I'll definitely be using their paint even beyond pregnancy, knowing that. It was fun working in this style, too. There's something really meditative about just focusing on painting flat shapes. And I think there's something meditative about how they look when they're done, too. These two little rooms feel so peaceful to me. And how cute that they even go together?! I love it. 

Happy almost-Spring from your growin' muralist friend,

Corie

Highland Elementary Mural with students

Hi Everyone!

As promised, I'm slowly getting current - sharing stories about older projects. This is a mural I made in collaboration with three ambitious and passionate 4th grade teachers, and three classrooms full of young minds, in Gresham, Oregon. If you're been following me for a bit, you might remember this project from last year. Yep, same school - but different hallway and different kiddos.

About 5-ish years ago, I was a Teaching Artist with Lane Arts Council in Eugene. I would go into schools and make murals with students. Sometimes with one classroom and sometimes with every kid in the school. It was a ton of work. And it wasn't quite a way to make a living. But I suuuure do miss it sometimes! I've been trying to do one of these volunteer projects per year, to get my fix. Read on, to learn how we made this year's mural.

I think my philosophy on mural-making with kids, stemmed partially from the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps' approach to international and community development was drilled into me from my years as a peace corps volunteer. You enter a community (in this case, the school/classroom) to do a project (mural), and you must first get buy-in from them if the project is going to go well. A good recipe for community development, and for getting kids on your side when doing murals together, is to INVOLVE them, rather than tell them what they should do. It works like this: Kids help you decide what to paint, and why. Therefore, they CARE. Therefore, they are PERFECT ANGELS for you while you paint (this was certainly the case during the last two murals I did in this school, where I was adamant about this process.) Therefore, they treat the mural with respect and pride when it's finished, and build some self-confidence in the process. While painting the mural, I try to keep my hands off it, save for fixing minor drips and splashes. But I'm not gonna go in and render out a perfect flower, over the top of one that five kids created together over the course of an hour. Kids make it = kids take pride in it.

Here is how we made a mural design with three classrooms full of kids. I asked the three teachers to come up with a very broad theme that we could use to prompt the kids to think of imagery. They chose this quote by Gandhi: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." The teachers had also been talking a lot about the idea of "using our voices." Pretty broad, right? But timely. Important. Big. Each kid was assigned to write and draw about what this means to them. I then took all of those assignments, and checked for re-occurring imagery, or words that could become imagery. Here's what came up:

Kids expressed using their voices through:

Art (fitting, right?)
Music
Writing
Kindness and anti-bullying
Speech/activism - this came up a lot in various forms. Some kids even specified: Black Lives Matter, immigration rights, "love is love", etc.
Keeping their environment clean and "green"
Learning and school

Imagery that came up a lot:
Hearts
rainbows
Hand-holding
kids playing
All skin colors
Protesters/marching/sign holding

My job then, was to try and synthesize all of that into one cohesive design, which is what we painted. Before getting our brushes wet, I talked with the kids about the power of "using our voices" through art (because that's what I know best.) I showed a powerpoint, and talked about how muralists like Diego Rivera were able to express some pretty powerful ideas through making public art. I talked about some murals I made in Madagascar, and how they helped teach folks in areas where literacy rates were low. That's the power of using our voices. So, the kids were already empowered about the idea of using their "voices" to show the rest of the school community how they felt. And that again, is the Peace Corps way.

On painting days, I lead about 5 kids out into the hallway at a time, and give them each a paint color and a place to put it. We work in layers - the first layers are purely just covering the wall. The subsequent layers leave more room for expressive mark-making and more careful technique practice. In the end, all of the kid have put a mark or 30 on the mural. And believe me, they remember EXACTLY where they are afterwards. It's so fun! The teachers even captured it on video this year, and made this gorgeous time-lapse! Love. Bucket = filled.

Forestry Court Apartments Mural

Hi everyone!

In my mission to post about a backlog of projects, today I'm sharing a very Northwest-y mural. This project came about when I was asked to paint something on the walls of an apartment building's lobby. This building is located in Northwest Portland, close to Forest Park - a lush backdrop of forest covered hills over the city's west side. The name of the apartments - Forestry Court - and it's proximity to actual forest, inspired a pretty obvious choice for the mural's imagery. The lobby is fairly dim, with little natural light, so I knew that I wanted to infuse a bit of "daylight" into the mural. A whole lot of Indian Yellow helped me create an illusion of that magic "golden hour" feel. It's that time of day when the sun is getting ready to start setting, and there are long shadows on the ground, and everything turns, well, golden. We knew we wanted to cover all of the available walls in the room, which was one large and prominent wall, plus two tall and narrow walls to the sides. Though there were hallways cutting through between the walls, I wanted them all to work together to create one cohesive piece. Then, the viewer's imagination could then fill the empty spaces between. 

I always enjoy the challenge of making it look like light is shining through the leaves on a tree. That almost-neon green that is formed by a back-lit leaf is so juicy and bright to look at in the natural world. Hard to capture in a painting, but worth trying. 

Once the main walls were done, I waited for a warmer day to paint some areas in the outside entryway. I figured just some greenery would help beautify the empty spaces in the tiling, and serve as a preview to what you'll see when you enter the building. 

I remember painting this in such a "flow" state - almost a trance. Nature is something I'm pretty darn used to painting by now, so it doesn't require a whole lot of thought - at least not conscious thought. When painting this kind of subject matter, what it really requires of me, is to turn off my conscious thought process, and just let my hands do their thing. It's projects like this, when I will listen to podcasts and audiobooks, to keep my mind occupied while my hands do the work. More complicated projects require more thinking (architectural or geometric work is like this). Does this make sense? It's just one of those things I've come to learn and nurture about the way my brain works.

This project totally inspired me to paint something like this in my home. I want a forest wall! Or door, or garage door, or kitchen. My house only has one mural so far - another project on the list to share. More to come!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and video of this fun forest-y mural!

How and why am I a Graphic Designer - Story time!

Hi everyone!

Another quarter of the year has passed, blog-less. I'm really going to try and change that habit, and do more creative things that feel good. Writing about my life and current projects is one of those things. 

I want to write about my Day Job today. My J.O.B. My 9-5. If you follow me here and not in real-life, you may just know me as a muralist/art teacher type. But I am also a Graphic Designer. This is the story of how I became one.

Looking back at my life, as soon as I discovered that you could create art in digital spaces as well as traditional analog ones, I was IN TO IT. When I was a kid, I would get on our little box-y black and white mac computer so that I could play Kid Pix, and drag around those digital brushes that would paint different patterns onto a blank canvas. It was so fascinating to me. I was a teenager in high school when I began (wildly... WILDLY) experimenting with Photoshop. I made a fake magazine about the pop-metal and alternative rock bands I was into at the time - complete with multi-page articles and music reviews (written by yours truly) and ads for fake products. All in Photoshop, with roughly 1 MILLION layers (cringe). As an angsty 16 year old, it was my digital masterpiece. In college, I took a few introductory graphic design and pre-press courses where I learned layout softwares like Quark Express and InDesign. I took a digital illustration class which opened my eyes to the complex world of Adobe Illustrator (and the pen tool I dreaded so much) and Corel Painter. It was incredible to me to be able to zoom in 200% and correct such tiny details in a piece of art. It was magic.

Despite all of that early interest, Graphic design was something I came to fairly recently in my life. A few years ago, after growing tired of the less-than-lucrative hustle of freelance and short teaching contracts, I came to Graphic Design in pursuit of a "safety net" during a move to the Big City. I viewed Design as a creative, yet reliable means to support my life and side business as a muralist. It was a practical and deliberate decision, satisfying my Taurus need for some desperately-needed stability. 

Being a Taurus also means I am stubborn, strong-willed and independent. Those traits have been both strengths and weaknesses in my life. Looking back, I think they kept me from pursuing this career as a younger adult. See, my Dad was a Graphic Designer. In college, I didn't even see that path as an option. I wanted to explore a path that was fiercely, uniquely, MINE. I chose my college major quickly, and stuck to it: Illustration with an Emphasis in Animation. I liked the idea of working at a Pixar-type studio, and making character designs and backgrounds (everything BESIDES actually animating, which I soon discovered I did not have the patience or passion for.) After graduating college, I put those plans on hold and joined the Peace Corps.

Peace Corps consumed my life for a good 3+ years. I was only actually living in Madagascar as a Peace Corps Volunteer for a total of 27 months, but a forced evacuation paused my service for 9 months of chilling on my parent's couch. I then went back to complete year 2 of my service. After coming home finally, I found myself reeling mentally and emotionally with the struggle of re-entry to life in the U.S. But I needed cash. Immediately. I went back into food service (sigh). I then worked my way into a sort-of-kind-of-regular job contracting at different K-12 schools, teaching kids art and making murals with them as an Artist-in-Residence, with commissioned mural jobs on the side. I took stock of my career goals and did some deep soul-searching. I reached out to a former professor for advice, and learned I needed to narrow my focus. Trying to keep ALL of the doors open, was preventing me from walking through any of them. I made a pro/con list, and a priority matrix (a tool I learned in Peace Corps. Need to decide something? See p. 43 of this document.) I entered so many interests and options into the matrix: Illustrator, Muralist, Tattoo artist, etc. Graphic Designer? Still not one of them. I decided that being a Muralist was what I really wanted to focus on. That hustle was HARD for me, and I soon realized I could not support myself that way full time, in that size town. So, a move! And then to facilitate that move, a job! What kind of creative job could be so "normal" that I would have it by the time I arrived in the city? Graphic Design finally appeared in a real way. 

I spent a few months refreshing and re-learning design skills and software I hadn't used since college. I watched hours of online tutorials and made myself a little web portfolio. That finally landed me an entry-level design job at a non-profit in Portland. From there I moved into the private sector, and now I've landed in the public sector. Working as an in-house designer has lead me to learn in-depth about industries I never would have otherwise: religious private school, fitness facilities, "green" and "eco" conference and event planning, aviation data sales, and now, criminal justice and community supervision and treatment. I have learned to code a bit, and so many new tools and programs. Graphic Design has lead me places I never would have imagined for myself. And I still have my other love on the side - murals. It's so satisfying to be able to pick up a brush, after days of clicking a mouse. It's the same creative drive - the same language, but a different dialect. 

Now that I'm in my 30's and doing this work, I realize that Design was always something I loved. Like that Taylor Swift song about her unrequited love story. Graphic Design was always there waiting for me, she just needed me to grow up and into myself a little more. Thanks Dad, for the genes. 

My Dad's book of Pantone swatches from the 1970's.
I have it on my desk at work as a reminder of where I came from.

xoxo, Corie

Wedding Hiatus... and I'm back!

Wow, hello again!

It's been a loooong time, readers, I know. I've taken the last year-ish to take a step back from hustling and the mural life, so that I could focus my extra creative energies on something else - getting hitched! 

The past September, I married the love of my life. It was truly the most love-filled love fest of a day that I can remember. To get us to that day, it took a whole lot of Type A planning vibes (something that does not come naturally to me - I have had to learn and work hard at being that way when it's required), creative energy and DIY elbow grease. My home studio was full of orange and gold glittered (our wedding colors) bits and pieces. My google drive was full of spreadsheets, word docs, and InDesign files. I designed all the printed pieces, as well as painted the signage. Husband built things, made things stand upright, and kept me sane. I consciously stepped back from other creative ventures to get it all done. Then honeymoon + holidays + settling into married life took over for the months following the wedding. 

I am now officially, Corie Michaels! I kept the ol' "Hinton" as a middle name, so that Corie Hinton can remain my artist name. At this point, there's probably hundreds of murals out there (I really actually have no idea how many...) that have been signed "Corie Hinton", so why be confusing? Anyway, married bliss and all that - it's really truly awesome. But now I'm ready to get back in the game and start producing more art for my own enjoyment, and also for ya know, cash haha. Before I blog about the handful of projects in between and since Wedding Madness, I thought I'd share some of what I made for the wedding. Enjoy! And look for more recap posts coming very soon. 

Corie

We made an "In Memory" table for our friends and family who have passed. Hand-painted flowery sign, so much gold spray paint. 

Designed and framed our Ketubah (left) - Jewish marriage contract.

Spray painted 150+ bottles and vases gold and half-gold for centerpieces

Husband built it, I added pretty curtains, florist added flowers. 

Designed our program - front side explained the ceremony, back side was sort of an infographic "about us" to read while waiting for the ceremony to start. Fans were NECESSARY as it was 100+ degrees that day and outdoor ceremony!

Little photo booth props

Welcome sign - again, hand painted flowery. Secret: I went to a recycling center and bought a bunch of old wood cabinet doors in all shapes and sizes to paint all my signage on! Also, gold leaf border but it's hard to tell in this pic.

Our "seating chart" was actually bagged donuts with labels that told guest where to sit. Yummm!

Card box - more orange and gold

Hand painted giant piece of plywood that I mural-ed for a photo booth backdrop

Invitation package, designed by me. Gold, gold glitter, and more orange.

I got to use gold foil for the first time ever in my graphic design career! What better time than for my own wedding?! 

One of us, just for fun :) More orange. 

"I am a Muralist" - A Social Justice Mural with Smart Kiddos

Hi everyone!

Prepare for a word-y, picture heavy post. This one's a doozy.

If you've followed this blog for a long time, you'll know that I originally started it as a way to document and explain my art lessons with kids, so that other teachers and teaching artists could benefit from them. I have since moved on and changed careers, and my blog has changed to reflect that. I used to be a Teaching Artist. I was on a roster with the local art council, and would get hired to visit schools to work with their kids in creating murals. Sometimes the contracts would last over a month, and sometimes just for a day. In my job now, I work a 9-5 as a graphic designer for a company. It's a more steady income flow, and it was just a nice career shift for me. While I definitely love still doing my own mural work on the side, there are days when I really miss making art with the kids. 

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to work with a classroom on a mural again. The school guidance counselor reached out to me through my website, and asked if I would be willing to donate my time to help them create a mural. My work just happens to give me 2 days per year to do service work, so that worked out perfectly for this project. This is how the school counselor described their situation:

"100% of our students receive free lunch. Our students are mostly kids of color and many are first or second generation Americans. Many of our kiddos have challenging home lives and have parents who are incarcerated, addicted or absentee. My role as the School Counselor is to teach skills and give support to these young people regarding the hurt, frustration, sadness and anger they have. We are a school of many white walls. I believe children will invest in what they see their environment to be and I don't believe white sterile walls are good for anyone, let alone children."

How could I possibly say no to that? We met up with the teacher who would be leading the project with me, and game-planned. The students would create a mural based on a poem that they were used to reading every morning before they started their school work. Here is that poem, written by Luis Valdez:

Tú eres mi otro yo.
You are my other me.

Si te hago daño a ti,
If I do harm to you,

Me hago daño a mi mismo.
I do harm to myself.

Si te amo y respeto,
If I love and respect you,

Me amo y respeto yo.
I love and respect myself.

The kids were assigned to draw and write about what the poem meant to them. The teacher then sent me all of their answers and drawings. I took stock of the images that came up repeatedly in the kids' work: Landscapes. Children holding hands. Children of different colors. Hearts. Then, I took those images and turned them into one cohesive mural design, which I traced onto the wall myself before working with the kids. 

On painting day #1, I gave a short presentation about the mural work I do. We talked about what makes a mural different from other art (it's art for everyone to enjoy, it's art for a community). We also talked about what it means to do a project together and work collaboratively (no one person gets to do the "coolest part" all by themselves. It takes ALL our brushstrokes to make up this picture, together). The biggest thing I had to tell them though, was why art is important. We talked about my murals done in the Peace Corps, in areas where the literacy rates are very low - murals become communication and teaching tools, more than the written word. Murals can explain to the public, the feelings of a community. This mural they were creating as a classroom, was going to explain their feelings and values to the school community. Murals give people voices. 

Then, we got to work. I approach murals with kids with a "one kid, one color, one job" approach. I mix a ton of colors in solo cups (house party supplies coming in handy! haha) and give one to each kid as they cycle through turns painting. Each kid gets a job. I ask them to fill in something, outline something, add some trees here, etc. They use their color, in their area, to finish their job. After 15-20 minutes, we rotate kids. Rinse and repeat until the mural feels finished. We had such a blast!

In the end, it looks absolutely beautiful. Since the first day when I made the black outlines, I had not touched it. I only directed the kiddos, much like I imagine a conductor would direct a symphony. The kids become my paintbrushes :) They did such a great job!

In the middle of the second day, the guidance counselor came up to tell me this: "one of the Latina girls you have been painting with just told me that she has felt sad with all the people saying they are not happy with immigrants being here. But she said that after painting this and seeing people with all the different skin colors in the mural, she feels like people really do love her." (I'm not crying, you're crying!) The lesson here is this: there are many ways to resist injustice. I was not in the streets that day, I was wrangling children with paintbrushes. But it's clearly made a small difference, if just to a few shorter, lovely humans. 

Here are a few of the kids' responses to their experiences. Again, heart melts. My favorite: "I am a muralist." Yeah kid, you sure are. 

Mount Rainier and Seattle in all it's (neon blacklight-y) glory

Hi everyone!

I recently had the pleasure of trying something I've never tried before, artistically. And I have to say, not only did it turn out pretty ok, I'm sorta obsessed with the process. I got to paint with light. 

I was commissioned by a family friend to paint a not-super-realistic portrayal of Mt. Rainier and the Seattle skyline, surrounded by a whole lot of nature, including a lake. Now, I'm not exactly sure if this is a real view that exists in life somewhere, but it was made clear to me that it wasn't the important part of the project. We cut and pasted different scenes and photos together to create this city/mountain mash-up. 

The painting was commissioned to be the focal point of my client's new home-bar area. So cool! (like the over-achiever version of the bar cart trend) I made a canvas to fit the exact dimensions of his wall space. The client's idea was to have a painting with fairly ambiguous time-of-day lighting, so that he could also commission another buddy to build him an elaborate lighting set up to go along with the painting. From my understanding, the lighting set-up will have different colors/settings/timers so that it can shine light on the painting to make it look like it's going from daylight to sunset, to night time. By the time it's dark, the only light shining on it will be blacklight. So I was asked to make the painting look normal in the daylight, and totally light up under blacklight! 

Coolest commission ever, no? Also a challenge, since I haven't worked with glow-in-the-dark/blacklight paint since I was probably 13. The process was this: I painted the painting as I normally would paint, but also added a ton of neon pigment into my colors as I mixed them. Neon acrylic is most definitely something I already had laying around, (because duh), so that part was nothing new to me. I knew that the neon would light up under the blacklight, so I was strategic about it's placement. After the whole thing was painted and dry, I turned out all the lights in my studio, except a blacklight. Then I painted over everything a bit, with the blacklight paint (I used Golden brand's glow-paint, recommended highly to me by the Art Store Guy). It was such a weird experience to paint in complete darkness. The paint totally lit up on my paper plate palette, and as I brushed it onto the dark canvas. I felt I was painting with pure light. When I turned on the lights, the glow-paint was nearly invisible. SO. COOL. 

This was beyond fun, and my client was beyond cool. I must do more of this magic. Anyone need a painting or mural with a HIDDEN MESSAGE on it?!?!? A love note that only shows up under blacklight? A political statement? A hidden design? Let's play, guys!!!

On the easel

Done! In day light...

Hanging in it's place at the bar!

Under BLACKLIGHT!!!