MURAL-A-THON 2014... summer edition!

I don't even think I told you guys what I'm up to this summer yet! Well, remember the Walla Walla murals? I'm doing that again...but here in Portland!!

This project is insanely cool. I'm working with a company that builds retirement communities and memory care facilities. They are known for the murals inside their buildings - they're everywhere! They help the residents relax and feel at home. So I'm getting to fill their newest memory care facility in Portland with murals! It's still under construction, so I even got to help choose the paint colors for the walls, before I mural them! It's going to be my biggest collection of murals inside a single building, ever. The people I'm working for are giving me so much creative control, it's kind of unbelievable. They even trusted me (when I didn't trust myself) to try using a paint spray gun for the first time, to paint clouds all over the ceiling of the "great room" in the main living area. And use a scissor lift, which I've also never done. I just.... I feel so incredibly grateful. I feel like I can't believe my luck. But then also, I know I've worked my ass off to get to this point. From painting my parent's kitchen wall into a tropical garden as a high schooler, to charging family friends $10 an hour to paint their walls, to getting clients I didn't know personally, to making a business name and filing taxes as such, and now working as a legit professional contractor on a huge project. It's been a lot of soul-searching ("I know I'm an artist, but what should I DOOOO?"), rejections, and doing the "starving-artist" thing. I was thinking about this today while I was painting, and I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude, I wanted to cry. Janet Jackson in the headphones, burrito in my belly, paintbrush in my hand, doing the thing that makes me so indescribably happy, and knowing that it really, truly, is my legit job and business now. I feel blessed beyond belief. I guess if you can figure out what your really wanna do most, and figure out the order of the steps you can take to get there, and take them a teeny bit at a time, you'll get there eventually.

That's me, totally covered in white paint, from my paint sprayer. Need to invest in goggled and a respirator, asap!

I'm also happy to report that I'm off the scissor lift, and painting at ground level again! Ahhhhh the sweet, sweet, ground! Stay tuned for pictures, but I'll just say right now that it's about the most Portland-y mural ever - Mt. Hood, roses, and the city skyline. :)

Goodnight Portland... **Thank you**.....

CRAZY NEWS!! (and progress on latest painting)

Hi All,

First off, I have to share some exciting news!! I was brought aboard to work as a muralist for a company that builds and manages memory care and senior living facilities all up and down the west coast!! The sad part of this is, I will be taking over for a muralist who had worked with the company for 15 years, and sadly passed away before he could finish one of the projects. So my first job will be to finish that up. That facility is in Eastern WA., so I will be heading up there to work on that very soon. Luckily, I have a stellar boss at my other job, who supports my mural work 100% and will let me re-arrange my hours at work so that I can go up to Washington for a bigger chunk of time than just a weekend. This is exactly the kind of thing I had been envisioning and hoping would happen with my mural business. I've only been in Portland less than 3 months, and already I got connected with an interior design firm who gave me a great nursery job, and now this other company who could potentially turn into a long-term, repeat business type of deal. It's really crazy to me how things are all of a sudden happening once I: #1, moved to a bigger city, #2, deliberately decided that murals are the kind of art I would most enjoy making for people, and then #3, worked really freaking hard and learned all I could to make that happen. Then the universe just kind of started dropping things in my lap. Pretty grateful for all of it, and feeling so stinking lucky.

In other news, please help me decide what to do with this painting!!!!! I posted a blog about it last time...part of my Madagascar series, and kind of just about how it feels to live in another place and culture and make it your home, and then come back to where you lived before. Adjustment. Re-adjustment. And also it's about this Malagasy proverb: "Tsihy be lambanana ny ambanilanitra", which basically means, "everything under the sky is woven together like one big mat."  So. I'm definitely going to be writing those words in the border - the Malagasy on top, and the english along the bottom. What I'm debating about, is whether or not to put little critters in those circle bubble things in the middle. (I used a cut paper collage for this and then painted over it). I was thinking different cool bugs - dragonflies, etc. - one inside of each bubble. Paint those in, or leave it the way it is??? Help! I can't decide. Leave me comments if you have an opinion :) Feels really great to get into a groove on a painting I'm making for myself again. Will post again when this is finished... so close!

Corie

Collaboration with my Cousin and Livin' the Dream

Hi All,

I've been working on a small 6" x 8" piece that will be a collaboration between me and my cousin Terry who lives in Chicago. He makes ceramic and glass art and asked me to paint a couple things that he could imprint on his glass. So, the background will be on the bottom layer of glass, and the lion will be on a layer above that. Should give it some depth and be cool looking. I'm excited to see the final piece! And I will definitely put that up here once I see it.

In other news, I'm feeling really happy. I finally have a "real job" where people pay me to do something I love to do everyday. And the job is reliably there, for the same amount of hours, and pay per hour, every week. (That part is HUGE). And everyone's really nice and I feel like I "click" well with my co-workers. I feel respected. And I get to exercise at a fancy athletic club because it shares a building with our school. I feel like.... I made it to somewhere that I really wanted to be. It took me a long time and a lot of soul-searching to come around to the place I'm in now. It has not been an easy, or obvious conclusion. But I have worked really, really hard for this, and I think I'm exactly where I need to be at this exact moment. 

Grateful. :)