My Home is Portland Oregon

You guys. It has been an embarassingly long time since I've posted a blog. It's preeeetty bad.

But a lot has happened over the last couple months! Here's what I've been up to:

Bought a house:

P.s. this is pic is from my instagram which you can follow here: @talkingwallsmurals  #notsosubtleplug

Got engaged:

We look like zombies because we were dancing at the annual Thrill the World event - an event where people all over the world dance simultaneously to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and raise money for charity. Don't worry about it. My fiance knows me well and knows that I could not have been more into having fake blood dripping down my face while he asked me to marry him. Quirky, and so, so perfect for us. I am so happy!! 

So yeah, house projects and wedding planning madness occupies time. But now, I'm going to share a mural with you because that is primarily what this blog is about. I did another Portland-themed mural! This one is in the lobby of an apartment complex in NW Portland. It was super fun! Subject matter that I am super familiar with by now, but it's always fun to come up with fresh ways of doing it. And I actually really really love painting Mt. Hood. It takes my breath away even still, to come around a corner on a clear day and see Hood looking down over our beautiful city.

Also, on a nerdy note, the surface I painted this mural on was unlike any wall I've ever worked on. It was like there was a cloth-like surface treatment over the wall board. Pretty old building, so I'm not sure what it actually was, but it felt like painting on a canvas board. I was so into it. I want that on every wall! Anyway, here are the pics: (Not my best work as a mural-photographer though... there were windows behind me so the light is shining very strangely over the mural. I'll go back at some point to take better ones. But you get the idea.)

 

Summer/Fall Reflection Time

Hi everyone!

Get ready for loooong, end-of-season reflection time!

Mural work seems to come in waves. The winter time, especially right after the holidays, can be a slow time for business. With the return of the sunshine in Spring, people start to think about home/business improvement again, and my business picks up. Outdoor murals are also much more feasible during this time, given Portland’s wet weather. It’s been a busy warm season for me, for sure. But I definitely played as hard as I worked. I got outside a lot, and made some awesome Summer memories with friends, family and my love.

We’re right in the middle of that transition between Summer and Fall. This time of year, I always start to mourn Summer a little bit. I am absolutely a sun child and like the heat and all that it brings. The Fall is always my consolation prize for Summer ending though. Fall brings us Halloweeeen, which is magical and I adore. For me, Fall is also a time to turn inwards a bit more. Literally, I stay inside more, and also, I find that the weather makes me tune into my inner self more - it’s time to get to work. I have a few projects coming up that I’m super excited about - indoor wall, small commission painting, and one or two straggler outdoor walls that I hope can get finalized before the rain comes full force. They’re all different and will make for a fun Fall lineup of jobs. I’m realizing one thing though: I have neglected to make art for myself just for my own enjoyment, for a long time. I’ve been hustling hard, and playing in the sunshine the rest of the time. This Fall, I’m going to commit to doing some work simply to feed my own creative drive. I’m looking forward to spending some of the rainier days to come, settling in to paint. For me.

Friends, I want to tell you something SO BAD, but it feels jinx-y to announce fully just yet. So I'll just be vague (sorrynotsorry). I have been doing this work for a long time, sometimes making literally no money from projects (super rarely now tho, thankfully), and sometimes making the kind of bank I could never have imagined years ago. I have been doing this work - painting walls for money - for 13 years now. Doing exactly what I love has allowed me now, to buy myself a house. This is a ridiculous sentence for me to read back. While I’m not completely out of the woods in achieving that goal, I am staring the end of the long process in the face, and hoping for the best. The home-buying journey is an incredibly fast-paced one, especially in Portland’s market. With some time to breathe now, I’m feeling some space to reflect.

Painting is the work that makes me feel the most like myself. It is my favorite thing to do alone. It is the activity I missed most, when I was in the Peace Corps in Madagascar and away from pretty much every aspect of what makes up my life in America. It is also part of my job. It’s sometimes super weird that those 2 things combine - passion and money - but for me, most of the time, that combination is wonderful and fulfilling. Is it awkward sometimes to ask for money for what I enjoy doing? Yes. But then I remind myself that I spent a long time in school (and out), training for this. And a lot of people love their jobs, and also get paid for them. It’s such a blessing. I just want to thank all of you reading, who has ever been my client. I wish I would have kept track of every single person who has ever commissioned me for something. But I do know there are some of you out there who have, who are reading. If that is you, THANK YOU. You, plus all the others, are who have allowed me to even consider this gigantic goal. Thank you thank you thank you, and I love you all.

…New mural sketch below, cuz you don’t come for the babbles, right? ;)

Mid-Century Orange Sparkles... FTW!

Hi everyone! 

Been so long! I painted a mural a couple weeks ago and neglected to post it here... it just ended up as an album on my Talking Walls facebook. That one was a fun little flowery garden shed. Buuuut then I painted this next one, and decided it was time to get back on the blog train again, so here we are. 

This one is a bit outside my norm. So.... GRAPHIC! This was definitely mind-meld of my two jobs: graphic designer and muralist. Loved it.

I love helping my clients along, when it comes to dreaming up a vision for their space. Of course I have my own opinions and aesthetic, but it's like I always say: they are not. my. walls. You, dear clients, must live with them. I am here to help you decide, and eventually execute, what you would like them to look like. 

This particular client manages an apartment complex, with a lobby that needed some life. She liked the whole mid-century vibe. She needed some help to take her the rest of the way there. I definitely helped the most just in cheering her on, as she made decisions. Yes, you are right, bright orange WOULD be the perfect color for your entire apartment complex lobby! (Orange is my favorite color, so duh.) And yes, mid-century modern DOES call for design that is both very simple and extremely playful and fun. And those atomic starburst things are the funnest.

Sometimes people just need permission from someone else to make bold decisions. :)

Six Strong Women, Six Strong Panels

Hey Everyone!

Happy weekend! I'm just getting around to blogging about something really cool that happened for me last weekend. Our Six Strong collaborative mural was installed on the side of Everyday Wine on Alberta street here in Portland! This is a project that was organized through Alberta Art Works, an organization trying to get more public art into the Alberta neighborhood. Six local female artists were chosen to work on this project, and I was honored to be one of them. Each of us was given a 4'x8' panel to paint on. Anything we wanted (within reason - no nudity!) that related to the (very broad) theme of female empowerment. 

You can learn more about the project and artists on the Go Fund Me page here.

Can you guess which one I made from the first picture below? Hint: I like pink. 

Here's a couple of the thoughts behind my panel:

1. You can feel strong, capable, liberated, empowered, and independent, but also present and identify yourself as super "femme" at the same time. Break the molds, break through stereotypes, break the glass ceiling. But feel that it's also ok to paint your nails and wear pink and glitter along the way, if it makes you feel good to do those things. It should be considered a legit choice to be a super badass and also glittery if you want to be glittery. Hence, the colors in my panel are all pinks, and all the skin tones of the women are painted with pink glitter. I'm hoping the sparkle shows up more when the late afternoon sun shines directly on the mural.

2. We are strong through each other and through our communities. I liked the imagery that came up when I thought about women very literally, lifting each other up to positions of greater power and strength. We can do it (together!)

SO SO excited to have finished and installed not one but TWO pieces of actual public art up in this city in the last month!! YAY PUBLIC MURAL STUFF!! Not that I don't like the residential indoor ones, but it has definitely been a dream of mine to make more public work. So YAY dreams coming true and stuff. 

Happy fourth everyone! 

 

A Love Letter to Portland

Hi everyone!

I just finished this big retaining wall mural for an apartment complex in Northwest Portland. I’ve worked with this client before, but was still sort of awed when they said: “what’s YOUR vision for this wall?” and then accepted the first sketch I made. It’s pretty amazing and extremely rare to have a client give me full creative freedom to make a sketch. It’s even more amazing and rare to have that sketch accepted, just as I created it. Usually, my clients come to me with an idea – anywhere from very specific imagery, colors, etc., to having a vague theme to work with. But this time, I just got to go for it. To be fair though, I did keep my audience in mind, and wasn’t about to go totally out of control weird with it either. Afterall, this wall is in a residential neighborhood, and I wanted to make sure it would appeal to at least most folks living there.

The theme is sort of a love letter to Portland. I love how we can live an urban lifestyle in the city, and in 20 minutes, be in the country or in the middle of a forest. We can be on the coast OR the mountains in a little over an hour. It’s an exceptionally awesome place to live, in that way. I organized this feeling into a loooong, short wall. On the right, we’ve got a night scene of the Portland skyline, with street lamps, owls, stars, and a bridge (duh.) As we move left, we see the city transition into natural landscape, and more daytime light and colors. I love this city, and I hope that comes across and is relatable to the people who walk by this wall, or see it every day when they are almost home. Beautiful, magical, weird, Portland.

 

 

Family Tree...Willow Style!



Hi everyone!

 

I made this last weekend! This was done to celebrate a new marriage for an older couple. The tree will have pictures from of their respective families hung over it, in honor of combining their lives. I just love that. I love how sometimes people use my murals as a symbolic gesture. Or as therapy... you decide! I definitely hear a lot of stories in this job. Which is not, I know, maybe what you expect. People tell their hairdressers their life stories, that's a given. But also apparently, their muralists. And I love it a lot.

 

This was a fun one! Can't wait to see how it looks when the pictures are hung on top!

 

Cheers to the (almost) weekend, everyone! Be good.

 

 

 

The Coziest Mural

 Hi Everyone,

 

Sure feels weird to blog about something so fluffy, in light of the recent Orlando shooting tragedy. There's nothing new to say that would fully express my feelings about it. I keep thinking about how important queer spaces are for the exact purpose of having SAFE spaces where people can be themselves. That sense of safety was shattered, on Pride month, no less. It's just plain heartbreaking. I want to just promote this page that is collecting donations for the victim's families, before moving on. Hopefully this mural will bring a little lightness and color to your day, if your heart is hurting too.  

 

I made this mural the weekend before last, in my home town of Eugene. My parents still live there, so it was an added bonus to get to hang out with them while working on this. And sure nice to have a dad to bring me random supplies I forgot, and a mom to bring me a milkshake. Perks of being home for work, I tell you!

 

This mural is in a new yarn shop called "Cozy" that is opening in Eugene, OR. in mid-July, at 285 E. 5th St. The idea is to have all of the furnishings in the shop be in white, while the only pops of color will be the actual yarn on the shelves, and my mural in classroom area in the back of the shop. It's about 30ft. long, so not exactly subtle! We played with the idea at first, of just doing a giant granny square afghan, blown up large-scale across the whole wall. Then, I thought to have just crochet circles on a while background to keep it fresh, modern, and more in tune with the store's look.

 

I was excited about the concept sketches, but I can actually say I was a bit nervous about the actual execution of this one. I didn't know how I was going to tackle it until I was staring down the giant blank wall - no plan. The first circle (far right) was a learning circle, and took awhile. After completing that one, I found a rhythm, and just let it flow out of me. And now I know how to tackle painting crochet work, just in case I ever get asked to do that again, ha! It was fun to have a challenge, and then solve the creative puzzle. Creative puzzles are my favorite.

 

Enjoy! And be nice to each other. 

 

PAINT ALL THE THINGS!!!

 

Hi Everyone!

 

I've been a busy busy mural-painting beee! So much is happening between May and June that I'm feeling like I can barely keep up (while also incredibly grateful for the work...duh.) In Mural-landia, I've started to find that the wintertime, especially after the holidays, business is a little slow. Then Spring comes, and everyone starts to feel re-energized and excited about all things home-improvement. People start to add the color back into their lives! I've got a few business-place murals and a residential in the cue, and I'm super excited to paint all of them. Like, they're really really fun. But I'll tell you about those next time.

 

This post is gonna be way pic-heavy below, so get ready. Everything pictured here, and a few things that aren't, were finished during a recent 9 day trip to San Diego. I was there to paint murals inside a new memory care facility for patients with dementia and Alzheimer's. It's a super rewarding project to be a part of, and when I stop to reflect back on it, the warm and fuzzies start up. My grandma had dementia, and it was super hard to watch her decline. Up until the last couple years of her life, Grandma was an incredibly prolific and talented abstract artist. We were 2 peas in a pod - I thank her for the art-y brain I inherited. I also inherited her nice Golden acrylic paints, and a ton of her brushes. She wrote her name on them with sharpie, and I smile everytime I turn a brush in my hand and find her name there. When I reflect back on all the work I've done at not just that particular memory care facility, but the 2 others I've worked in, along with 2 retirement centers, I feel so happy and proud about being able to provide some joy and maybe ease some of the struggles of the residents who live in them. I know my Grandma would be so happy that I'm using this skill that she passed down to me, to help people who had what she had. Some strange full-circle-ness in the universe, that is.

 

BUT. Holy crap was it exhausting to paint this intensely under the kind of pressure and deadlines I was under for this last facility. Not to mention, trying to schedule and navigate around all the different kinds of workers that come through a construction site! I think I didn't blog about this whole thing until now, just because the whole post would have been like, "I'M. TIRED." Because I sure was. I guess, I've found that my "sweet spot", of getting my most quality mural work done, and staying in a creative zone, lasts about 5 hours. Then I need to eat (before the hangry-s kick in), and just rest my eyes. It really helps so much to do murals in big chunks rather than all in one day, working straight through. I think your brain needs time to catch up to what your hands are doing or something. It just feels like after I sleep between painting sessions, I solve the creative problems in the project overnight in my dreams. It really does work that way. BUT, deadlines are deadlines, and I didn't have that luxury this time. Still happy with what I made though, so maybe it's ok to paint exhausted and delirious. ;) Here's the stuff: