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!

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? ;)

Fresh walls, need paint!

Hey everyone, happy weekend! 

Just thought I'd share a bunch of murals-to-be that I've been dreaming up with new clients. Here's a snapshot of 5 projects I've got on the horizon: from newborn, to tween, to adult, these are for people all over the board. Can you guess which one is for which? Definitely keeping my summer painting interesting ;) 

Friday is supposed to be my painting day, but I made it a catch-up-on-life day and got a whole ton of other stuff done instead, so that tomorrow I can bliss-out and push some paint around. Stay tuned for non-photoshopped, images of actual finished paintings coming your way soon :) Stoked!

Malheur Wildlife Refuge Mural... and birds!

Hey everyone!

Happy weekend!! So the post from last week, kinda goes with this one. The forest mural I posted last time was for the same client as this one; one mural inside, one outside. My client for these was a major bird-watcher person, so I was super nervous I would get some bird details wrong. They passed her test though - ornithologically correct! Man that's a big word. 

This one was super fun! Challenging to try and make this mural for her closet doors go with all the other colors she had going on in her room - different artworks too. It was a good challenge though, and got me to focus on slight color variations, and more neutrals than I would naturally go for (I know it's still pretty colorful though... I have a problem). Anyway, super fun couple of projects, I loved pushing the paint around on these. Delicious. 

Next time, suuuuuper long hallway mural and a few more consults coming up. Excited to hear new client's ideas :)

Operation "Nighty Night"

Happy weekend everyone!

Today I'm taking a day off, but tomorrow I'll start a new mural project. More about that later. For now though, let me catch you up on what I did LAST weekend!

My client for my last project was significantly shorter and cuter than most. This first picture is our initial consultation and brainstorm. It involved lots of mention of rainbows and fairies. Let me give you the backstory: 

Cutie sees house fire...... gets scared of fires...... associates smoke alarm in her room with fire and "scary"...... fear-of-fire fueled insomnia and general bad-dreaminess occurs...... parents need solution!

So her parents had her sign an agreement that if she could have good sleeping behavior for each day leading up to Chanukah, they would hire me to come paint her ceiling as a Chanukah present! My job was to turn that general smoke alarm area into a happy thing to look at, rather than scary. Hence, "Operation Nighty Night" was born. I die from cute. 

What I really appreciated about this job, was that the parents let their daughter make the decisions about her ceiling mural. It was all about what was going to help her sleep, and make her room a safe and happy place to be in. Kids have beautifully wild and uninhibited imaginations. When adults can recognize and embrace that, rather than stifle it, amazing adult/child collaborations can happen. Take a look at how we made ours:

Client Meeting! The kiddo and I talking over her ideas and making a concept sketch!

Concept sketch presented to me: That bullseye to the lower right? The smoke detector - soon to be surrounded in rainbow!

My interpretation of her sketch: A little photoshop and it's ready to present back to my client! She approves. 

Going for it! Ouch, my neck. 

End result!

Happy client right there. Happy Muralist too :)

We even got her into the action: Brother, sister, and their friend all got to paint the silver raindrops!

That was probably the cutest thing to happen to Talking Walls Murals, maybe ever. :)

My Artist Statement (for murals)

So recently, I applied to be on a muralist roster. Kind of just a list of people who do murals that the city of Portland keeps on hand, and on their website, to refer to whenever anyone goes looking for a muralist. Kind of a biggie for me to try and be on. So I thought I would share the little artist statement I wrote for that application - it's basically my whole mural-ing deal in a nutshell, since I had to keep it super short. :) Wish me luck!
_______________________________________________________

My mission is to bring: POSITIVITY, BEAUTY, INSPIRATION, LEARNING and UNDERSTANDING to environments, through painting walls.

I started painting murals as a high school student in Eugene, Oregon. My Mom hated the wallpaper in our kitchen, so we scraped it off, and I painted a tropical garden. During that first mural, I fell in love with painting BIG. Since then, I have been painting murals in private homes, businesses, with students, in memory care facilities, and with prison inmates.

After college, I joined the Peace Corps, where I lived and worked in Madagascar for 2 years. In Madagascar, I painted murals about health and environment topics in rural hospitals and schools. The murals became visual teaching aids, where most are illiterate. It became clear to me that murals can add value to the world, outside of aesthetics. Murals can teach concepts, illustrate ideas, tell stories and change minds. 

After returning from the Peace Corps, I joined the Lane Arts Council's Teaching Artist Roster in Eugene, OR. I taught mural-making to students in grades K-12, in over 10 public schools. I once facilitated a 4th grade in painting a mural on cloth, about Malaria prevention, and shipped it to Madagascar where it was installed in a rural clinic.  I have witnessed the rise in student’s self-esteem and sense of community when they work together on a mural. The same way that a school community is strengthened by a collaborative mural project, public murals allow artists and community members to honor their own neighborhoods. I enjoy both facilitating mural projects with groups, and creating them solo. 

Murals can turn forgotten spaces into beautiful ones. Whether that transformation occurs inside a private home or in a public space, murals allow people to tell their stories. What I love about being a muralist, is that I get to help be that storyteller. Murals allow walls to live up to their full potential. They allow people to speak without using words, and to be understood.

Thoughts and Ramblings on Mural-ing

I'm going to try to stick to blogging every week. I started this when I was working as an Artist in Residence in the public schools, and this blog was a way for me to share lesson plans with others. I used to lay out detailed instructions for lessons about famous artists, and the process of making murals with children. It was great to be able to just hand teachers a link to this site, so they could remember the lessons I was doing with their students, and use them for long after I'm out of their classrooms. Now I'm not teaching anymore. So what is this space for? I think it's been a nice way to share my current projects, and also a way to force myself to reflect. So, this week I am without a project, but here are some thoughts I jotted down while I was painting murals up in Walla Walla:

Thoughts on painting murals:

• Best tool ever: 1" flat brush.

• Best part of painting: Putting in the highlights and the lightest lights at the very end.... I can hardly wait for this part, every time!! Painting edges where sky or background meets the object/foreground.

• Worst part of painting: Putting down the very first base layers: BO-RING. Also, looks like crap at first, which is slightly scary. Especially if I have to leave the mural in this state at someone's house before I come back the next time. I always feel the need to give a disclaimer: "Don't worry, I promise it will get better later! DONT LOOK AT IT NOW!"

• How to paint fast: Stop thinking. Stop judging every move you're making. Listen to podcasts on really interesting stuff, or songs with a lot of lyrics (Atmosphere is my fav for this). The words distract me from forming any inside my own head, which can lead to totally counter-productive self-talk/self-doubt, which slows me down. The key is to make creative decisions quickly, so that you are using instinct and feelings, rather than over-analytical thought. Now, this is not to say that some thought doesn't go into making murals - I do think about what I'm doing in the beginning during the planning/sketching stage, and also in moments where I stop and stand back from a wall to look at what needs to happen next. 

• Livin' your Dream: You have to DECIDE to do it, and then you have to WORK at it. Someone told me one time that you can do ANYTHING you want, but you can't do EVERYTHING you want. First, you have to DECIDE. It was really good advice for me at the time. A couple years ago, I was kind of floundering. I'd just gotten back from the Peace Corps, and was working in a grocery store bakery, trying to figure out what the hell to do with myself. It was everything I could do not to re-apply for the Peace Corps, or a volunteer position in Jamaica. I was interested in, and actively considering trying to build careers in all of the following: illustrator, tattoo artist, muralist, concept artist for animation or any kind of art for the entertainment industry, and art teacher. I was also poking around a lot on usajobs.gov, looking for government jobs in everything from Peace Corps Recruiter, to pretty much anything with the EPA, or Fish and Wildlife, etc. (After Peace Corps, they give you one year of non-competitive eligibility for government jobs - it just makes it easier for you to get hired in one). I even went to a government career fair, and the Secret Service had a table. I took a pamphlet. I was pretty lost, OK? Anyway, point of all of this, is that I was going in a thousand different directions, and thought that the moment I picked one, I was closing all the other doors, forever. I eventually made a pro/con list of all my very top career choices. And I rated them. In the end, murals kind of won over everything else. I knew I liked being around people and working for clients I could actually meet in person, and personally help in a teeny tiny way. I liked being able to brighten people's spaces, and help tell their stories on their walls. Cheesy, I know. But I liked the human aspect of making murals for people. I also really, really like to paint BIG. I like the variety of work I get to do too. I remember being in the Peace Corps, and making lists of all the things I really missed about being in America. I missed burritos with green sauce. I missed my family. I missed the feeling of being in someone's house and making them a mural. The fact that I missed that SO much, and would paint murals for people while I was in Madagascar, with the crappiest of wall situations, really told me that mural-making was just that important to me. I really believe that just making that CONSCIOUS DECISION that murals were my most favorite artistic career choice, has set in motion everything that's led up to getting me some success at doing it now. I think that part was really important. It's crazy to be able to look back at all that, and see all the pieces leading up to where I'm at now, feeling like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel really grateful for every little piece of it though, even the hard parts. 

Ok, ending this week's rambling.....now! Have a great week everyone!! :)

Pics from "MURAL-A-THON 2014!" in Walla Walla

Ok, finally posting pics from my week of painting murals in a memory care facility in Walla Walla, Washington! I spent 6 days there, and made all of these below, plus the garden one from this post.

It was quite the experience, and I have to say, overwhelmingly positive. I enjoyed meeting the residents and learning the tiny snippets of what their lives used to be like. It was a bit emotionally taxing though, to be in that environment for 8 hrs a day, 6 days straight. It's just hard to see people so confused and frustrated sometimes. But I can tell that there are good moments, too. And really, most of them - like my Grandma was - are truly living moment to moment. I think that yes, the murals help to cheer and brighten up the spaces, but in this sort of facility, they are also very functional. The two murals I painted over the exit doors at the end of each hallway, served to disguise the doors. It can be frustrating for both the residents and the caregivers when they try to leave. The crazy bright flowers and parrots mural is in a room that they call the "snoezelen room" -  a multi-sensory environment for residents to go when they get agitated. Check out the research here. Seems counter-intuitive until someone explains it to you. But this room is full of little squishy toys and multi-colored lights and music. And now my crazy mural. Apparently, the research shows that going into a very stimulating environment like this allows for distraction from what the resident was upset about in the first place. They forget what was so upsetting very quickly. Pretty interesting. Overall, I was extremely grateful to be a part of making this facility a little nicer! 

Here's what I made:

 

This one was started by a different muralist - He did the sign, I did the 3-D garage.

Another Nursery!

Happy Friday eve, everyone!

Well, after 6 days of painting murals for 8 hours a day, I must say, I'm a little pooped. I don't usually tackle a bunch of walls back-to-back like that! If you missed the last blog post, I was painting murals for a memory care facility up in Washington. More on that in my next post: lots of pictures!

But first, a little catch-up: I painted this one a couple weeks ago for my boss' nursery as a present! They are a super musically talented, fun couple, and so I think this fits them perfectly! There was a long discussion about which animal would be playing which instrument. OBVIOUSLY, monkeys are made for violin-playing, and tigers for trombones. ;) I love projects like this that are just pure cheerful and whimsical - to make people smile and warm up a space for a little one. Super cute and fun!

So also, while I painted this mural, I was filming the entire time! I've always wanted to make a video of me painting a mural that's super sped up, so you see the whole thing painted within a minute or two. I love watching those on youtube, and have always wanted to make one! I was resisting the urge to do the Bob Ross thing, and narrate about my "happy tree" to the camera ;) Which animal is your fav?

My Grandma would like this.

Ok, this is the craziest: I’m on a business trip! For my business I made! For doing this thing that is my #1 favorite art thing to do for other people, but people will also trade me real money for, that I can buy real things with!  That’s the craziest to me. Is this real life? This job is huge for me for a couple of reasons: #1, I’m making more money/hr. than I ever have or probably ever will again, which is awesome because money, but also #2, this means that someone (who is not friends or family) is telling me they find what I’m doing valuable and will treat me as a real professional. Which I guess is what I am. That feels good.  

I drove up here to Walla Walla, WA (GORGEOUS drive through the Columbia river gorge) yesterday after working a half day at my “real” job (also in love with that), and settled into my guest room at a retirement community here. The next morning, I had breakfast with the owner, and we took a tour of the building’s murals (they are everywhere and amazing). The muralist before me sadly died of cancer not too long ago, so here I am, the replacement. They built a brand new memory care unit right next door to this community, and that’s the building that I’ll be filling with murals. So after the morning meeting, this is what I made:

I’m happy with it, especially for a one-day project. The texture of the walls is PERFECT, and my instructions are to paint “impressionistic” with relatively low detail. Which is totally my jam.

While I was painting, I kept picking up brushes that had either, “Florie Gussis” or “FG” written on the handles in sharpie. My grandma labeled all of her art supplies with her name. I inherited these after she passed away, and now, I use both her brushes and her really nice acrylic paints (I only use those on canvas though, not walls). My grandma had Dementia. Now I’m using her brushes to paint a mural in a memory care facility for residents to enjoy, who have what she had. Something just feels so “full circle” about that. I know she would be proud of me right now and I miss being able to call her and my Grandpa to tell them about these exciting life moments. But I’m happy to have inherited her creative genes - she is with me always. 

Stay tuned for more... I’ll be here mural-ing all week. ;)