BIG BIG BIGGERRRR!!!

Hi everyone!

Happy new year! I have BIG hopes and plans for 2016. After a bit of a mural-break over the holidays, I'm excited to get back into the groove. Yesterday was a busy day of three different mural consultations, which have me totally stoked for the months ahead. The first consult of the day had me talking to the National College of Natural Medicine here in Portland, about what could be the BIGGEST MURAL IVE EVER PAINTED. And most public - it's right off of one of the really busy streets in town. The pics below show only 2 of the 3-sided site that they are looking to cover in murals. As far as the subject matter for this one, I was so excited by the initial email inquiry awhile back, that I had to post it to my facebook page. In case you missed it:

Excerpts from a mural inquiry I received today:
"reflect a deep respect for nature "
"an abundant forest"
"a mildly hypnotizing flower"
"A powerful owl would be appropriate"

I'm like, 10,000 TIMES, YES PLEASE. 

This one will require cooperation with the City of Portland, neighborhood, and a committee at the school. So it'll be awhile before paintbrush hits concrete, but I can't wait for the moment it begins. My BIGGGGG public mural dreams look like they're slowly coming true. Thanks, thanks, thanks, Wall Painting Gods. Hoping you get some breaks in 2016 from the gods-of-whatever-you-are-into. :)

Merry Christma-kah!

Happy Holidays from me, Talking Walls aka Corie! 

I hope you all are enjoying this time of year, whatever you celebrate, if anything. I celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah. I really enjoy putting together and making my own presents for people for both those holidays. In my Talking Walls Murals business, it feels really good to be able to create a piece for someone that has only existed in their imagination before I made it real. Making surprise-present-artwork for my family is the best feeling though (even though sometimes they ask for something very specific... not so surprising then haha.) Anyway, here is my family's haul this year:

The above is a painting for my sweetie's office. He needed something calming and peaceful. Awhile ago I asked him what he would want if I could paint him anything in the world. He said, a forest with snow. 

When I was in elementary school, I took sewing lessons. It's been a really great life skill to have. Not only for practical things, but for artsy endeavors as well. There's a tradition of gift-giving in my family that I make my mom an art doll every year. Sometimes it's totally random, and sometimes the doll is themed to something important to my mom that year. This year, my parents travelled to Greece, so my mom got a doll of Athena, the greek goddess. 

My boyfriend is of Jewish heritage as well, and needed a menorah. So I made him one out of a raptor toy, naturally. 

My little sister lives in the cutest studio in San Francisco, and was growing tired of her old black and white Ikea prints over her TV. She measured the space she wanted the new artwork to hang in, and put in her holiday present order from her artist sister: a triptych (3 paintings that go together) with red, close-up poppies. Sister gets what sister asks for because I love her. 

This giraffe went to my aunt and uncle. My grandma, who passed away a few years ago, loved and collected giraffe things. When we cleaned out my grandparent's house, many of us took one or more of her giraffes. My Aunt said: "A giraffe painting! A realistic one. Oh nevermind, just do it your own way." And I sat down to paint it like, "ok then it's going to be purple." 

And there is one more piece for my dad, that I failed to get a picture of. Maybe I'll post that at some point too. But basically, there you have my family's Corie-art-present haul for 2015. I think sometimes my family thinks this is annoying or burden-y for me to make most of their presents. Shhh don't tell them how much fun I had making them. :) 

Art Career Rambling....

So I'm by no means already "making it" as a full-time artist.  I haven't yet "arrived" at the place I want to be with my career.  But, I can say that the last couple months have been busy as hell, and when I pull myself out of my art-cave to take a breather, I realize "hey, I'm not a Barista anymore, and I'm keeping a full schedule on making murals and teaching art!"  I am my own Boss.  That, to me, is an incredible personal victory.  Even though this insane busy-ness has only lasted for a couple months, I'm trying to keep the momentum going and the dream alive and well fed.  I know there will be slower times where I'm not working as much, and times that are even busier than the last month.  I repeat, by no means am I already THERE, but it feels amazing (if it's not too cheesy and cliche to say this...) to know that I am following my heart.   I feel I am on the right path, putting one foot in front of the other.  Along the way,  I think it's important to stop and look around every once in awhile, and appreciate where I've been able to get to thus far.  In this economy, a person is lucky to have a job that keeps food on their table.  I'm lucky enough to be in a situation where I was able to actually pursue my passion, and go to school to study it.  And now, I am in a situation where I don't have any huge debts, child care costs, or bad mortgages keeping me from taking the giant leap to ACTUALLY TRY.  I am actually trying really, really hard.  I'm trying to build a life for myself where I will be happy and fulfilled in my work that I do for a living.  I figure, it will be OK if I fail and have to move onto something else, as long as I know I tried as hard as I could to make my #1 first choice career happen for myself.  Because why not?  If you're in a creative field, check out this article on goal-setting to make your career happen.  It's baby steps.  It's knowing where you want to go, and putting one foot in front of the other until you get there.  Good luck to us all!

Dreams and Plans

I mentioned in my last post that I was recently interviewed by a UO Journalism student.  I thought I would share that interview here.  Click here to read the short article.   The pictures below are pictures that were taken of me to accompany the article. 

I've recently been contacting other mural artists that I've found online - those whose work I admire and who seemed successful in their fields.  I've had this list of questions for them, mostly about marketing and pricing, but also some about their career trajectories.  It's been really interesting to learn about these different artist's lives and how they got to where they are today.  No one had a straightforward path to follow.  It's been difficult trying to figure out the best way to make my dream job(s) happen in my own life.  It's not like my sister's career choice (physical therapy) where there is a more clear path set out for you. You go to school, you do your clinicals, you get a stable job.  Not that that path is any easier, because it's just as much if not more work than mine.  But from what I can tell, I've chosen a path that's shrouded in fog, not lit up by street lamps the whole way.  I've been reaching out to others, and doing tons of research on the internet about mural-ing for home and business and even the public art world.  I'm not sure how I'm going to get there, but what I want is this: 

To make a decent enough living to support myself and children someday by having a career that is half made up of teaching art residencies in K-12 schools, and half made up of making murals for clients.  

That is what I want.  I know without a doubt that both of those parts do in fact make me extremely happy.  I know everyone says that they don't care about being rich, they just want to be happy.  That's true for me, too.  I would rather do something that makes me extremely happy for 8 hours a day and come home to a modest home and modest "things", than do something that makes me feel like a numb zombie for 8 hours and come home to a ton of nice crap in a big, dreamy house.  It just makes more logical sense to me, to spend your work life happy, rather than working hard and hating it so you can be happy in your down time.  That's the goal and I'm working hard to achieve it.  If I fail, at least I'll know that I gave it a shot, and then will have to look for something else that might make me moderately happy instead. ;) 

This post is turning super "journal entry", so I'm going to end it here.  But I will say that I believe there is something to be gained by writing down and telling others about your dreams and plans.  Do it.  Tell someone your dreams.

working away on a painting in my studio

my "studio"

Admiring the kid's work at Walterville Elementary

Newest work out of the studio