I finished this really big thing!!!!

CHEERS!! I'm done!!

This was taken on one of the most exciting days of my life, I would say. The day that marked the end of one of the coolest things to happen to me... and the beginning of hopefully more cool things. Either way, yesterday was a good day.

I've spent about 2 months painting murals inside the Parkview memory care facility in NE Portland. 4 major mural walls, plus tons of other small things everywhere...animals, random faux brick and faux other stuff, clouds, signs, flowers, animals, etc. It was such a variety of things that I got to paint! I still haven't uploaded all the final pictures, but you can like my facebook page to see the albums of stuff I've already posted (which is a lot). Yesterday was the open house for the community and potential new residents and their families (friends-in-real-life, if you're reading this, I didn't do a massive invite thingy... I wasn't really sure if I should bring a humungous posse with me to this thing... but it's been amazing to have your support!) It's been a massive amount of work. Well, maybe not really, but it felt like a lot because I did it all on top of my full time job, and was up against a deadline. Which I just barely cleared. (I was painting the last wall till 11:30 the night before the grand opening!! Talk about cutting it close!) Most of the time I was painting, I was coming to work when all the other workers were already home for the night. So it was cool to actually see and hear people responding to the walls.

If you're not new to my blog, you already know the story of why this project means a lot to me - my Grandma had dementia, she was also an artist. In a big way, I feel like this whole friggin' project is dedicated to her memory. I used her paintbrushes to paint it. She would have really like the place, and it feels GREAT to be a part of something that's gonna make people with memory diseases feel good. So that's the warm fuzzy part, and it feels real good. The other part is that I'm a professional muralist...for real. It's my DREAM, and this is my first big taste of success at it - (my first big  commercial/for-a-company, public job... that I did for strangers, not friends of my parents! And they're paying me what I'm not even sure I'm worth.) Grateful, grateful.

This weekend, I'm taking time to catch up on life - do laundry, go grocery shopping for real, get a full 8 hrs of sleep.... this blog! It feels wonderful. Now that I'm getting caught up with myself, I'm excited to catch up with my friends. Pictures to come, soon. Wooohooooo!!!