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! 

 

MAGIC mural to come!

Hi everyone,

I'm sitting here in the airport during a layover on my way home to Portland. I just finished up a week-long mural painting trip in San Diego! It was a very intense and productive trip. I finished three bigger murals, painted clouds onto a blue ceiling sky, plus a few smaller vignettes. Muraling that intensely is physically exhausting (murals are big and command lots of movement in themselves... add climbing up and down scaffolding a million times to that and you get one tired Corie!) But a very good trip overall. Though there were moments of terror (I hate heights!) There were also many moments - hours even - where the exterior world melted away, my own thoughts melted away, and all I was left with was that blissful feeling of "flow." Painting is so good. #addictedtoflow

I opened up my laptop just now with the intention of blogging about the trip and posting a ton of pictures, but I found this post in my drafts, waiting to be published. So, I'll post about my San Diego trip next time. But for now, a look forward at what's to come! 

I made the following mock-ups for a client in photoshop, and I get to paint it in a couple weeks!! This one is a bit more loose, playful, and generally magical than I'm used to painting for commission work. I'm super excited to be allowed the freedom to make this on a wall that doesn't belong to me. I think that painting something like this has a bit more to say than some of my other work. It feels like it has more of an opinion, if that makes sense. Instead of just saying, "this is Portland."... It says, "my city is SO beautiful - especially at night." Also, COLOR! Can't wait. 

Happy saturday, friends!

"Six Strong" Mural Project

Hi everyone!

There's not going to be much happening in the way of murals for a few weeks here (construction scheduling... predictably unpredictable!), but there's a lot of mural-ing on the horizon to be looking forward to! 

Today, I finished this sketch for one of the future projects that I'm most excited to be a part of. I was asked to be one of six female mural artists/street artists to collaborate with on one large mural in NE Portland (the Alberta Arts district, if you're familiar with Portland.) I am super honored to be sharing a wall with each of these five talented women! We'll each get one 4'x8' panel to do whatever we want with, as long as it relates to the theme of "female empowerment." The panels don't have to relate to each other in terms of style or color, or anything other than the theme. Instead, each panel is supposed to represent it's individual artist's aesthetic. You can learn more about the project on the Go Fund Me page here.

I was working with two main ideas to make my sketch:

1. The idea that feeling strong, capable, empowered, and independent, but also presenting as "femme", can exist together in the same person. Someone should feel that it's ok to identify as a woman and a feminist, and present themselves as traditionally feminine - or not - as they want. 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. I'm not sure I'm explaining the idea well enough. Basically, I think it should be considered a legit choice to be a super badass and also glittery if you want to be glittery. Sparkle on!

2. The idea that 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.

Hopefully, at least a little of those ideas, or at least positive, empowering vibes, comes across in my panel when it's done. I'm excited to paint this BIG! And extra EXTRA excited to use this much pink glitter on one piece. ;)

Happy one-extra-hour-of-daylight, loves.

Corie

The WALLS in my future...

Hey Everyone!

Here's a sneak-peek into what's coming up for me both this month (scheduled) and further into the future (requires crossed fingers). 

The first couple images show photoshopped ideas of a couple possible directions to go with a GIANT GIANT WALL that I am trying to make mine. Well, not MINE, but I hope to have the honor of painting it. There's a committee I am applying to, so that's where crossed fingers come in.... along with some essay-writing, image/resume-providing, and sketch-making. It would be for a college of natural medicine, hence, the medicinal plants and healing vibes and such. That one wouldn't happen until Summertime. I will of course, keep you updated ;)

Third image down, is for the wall behind a reception area for a company that, from what I can tell, makes the plastic molded parts for four-wheeler type recreation vehicles. EXTREME!

Last image is of a special place on the coast, to go on the wall of a calming, peaceful bathtub retreat. Cue blissful sigh. 

Excited for these to come to life. :)