Picture Post!!

So this is what I've been doing with most of my time here in Philly.  The "Murder Project" as it's been aptly nicknamed (The 94 Effect - I wrote about this creepy project in a previous post), is now basically finished and my muralist mentor and I are out of her studio and spending 100% of our working days here at the pool mural project in North Philly.  This is what it looks like so far....

This wall is the first and only to be finished so far. 

Pretty, right?

This wall isn't quite finished yet. Still needs the text. The whole mural will eventually have the text of a poem wrapping around 3 sides of the building. 

The assistant muralist (left) and the men hired from the work-release facility as a part of the Mural Arts Program's Restorative Justice program.

Workin' away!

 Hands getting steadier with every day that goes by!

 Another intern and I are working on the wall facing the pool. NO DUNKING! NO RUNNING!

 So many brushes....

 We mix all the colors beforehand to match the master design, assign each color to a number, and do the whole thing like a giant paint-by-number. 

 It takes a LOT of paint......

So there you go, a visual post, finally!! 

Not your average internship

This is not your average coffee-making, paper-copying internship.  I have been through about a week and a half of my internship with the Mural Arts Program, and so far, I am loving it!!! Here's what I've been up to:

Project #1:  

On Monday, Thursday and Friday, I am working on a mural at a neighborhood pool in North Philly.  Not until my first day of work, did I realize that this project was under the "Restorative Justice" branch of the Mural Arts Program.  So, when I showed up and met my Muralist that I'll be working under, Andrea, (names changed to protect the innocent!), I was surprised to see her with a team of 5 men.  I didn't really know anything about either of my 2 projects before I arrived or even before I started, only that one of them was at a pool.  I guess I should have expected that a project that big would probably have assistants hired.  So, still not knowing what was going on, I'm making conversation with one of the men and ask, "So, what part of Philly are you from?"  He answered, "I'm coming from 600."  Me: "Oh, ok.." (assuming that was a street? or something?)  Later after talking with Andrea a bit, I learned that all of the guys are a part of an apprenticeship program that helps inmates in work-release facilities (like "600"), or people that were just released from prison.  So these guys are going to jobs classes where they're learning about resume-making and interviewing, and then 3 days a week, they're out learning skills like painting with us at the mural, carpentry, tile working, etc.   It's pretty cool.  Most of these guys were hand-picked out of their prison art classes, for good behavior and showing promise and interest. 

The mural we're doing is going to be around all 4 sides of the pool building. On the inside wall, we're doing a big design that incorporates the "Pool Rules".  It's a geometric design with a daring, bright color palette.  It's a lot of triangles.  Ok, it's basically all triangles.  It's really nice looking, though.  It's also going to incorporate some tile mosaic, and a poem about believing in yourself. 

I'm really learning a LOT.  I'm learning all kids of stuff about materials and process and what it's like making community murals.  Won't get too specific, but there's really just nothing like the information you get from doing something like this hands-on.  Andrea is amazing at answering all my questions thoroughly.  That was another reason I really wanted this internship, too...because trying to be a Muralist, can be lonely.  You can't get a master's degree in mural-making, as far as I know at least.  Muralists I've reached out to online have been unresponsive, and the other muralist I met in Eugene wouldn't help me because I was her competition.  I don't want to re-invent the wheel, here.  I want to learn how to do this job, and do it well.  But not all that many people do this for a living.  I have a lot of what I need already, but there are a lot of things specifically relating to the business and process of being a public artist/muralist, that they just don't teach you in art school.  And Andrea is here, an experienced muralist and wealth of information.  I get along with her great and feel really lucky to have been placed here.  I'm getting along good with the men at the site, too, while still keeping my guard up. I'm really excited to be on this project - it's a gorgeous design that's stretching my art comfort zone (ME  with a ruler, templates and a level? Not too common in my artwork) and it's also stretching my social comfort zone (not used to working with inmates, either).  I like the "make an ugly building much, much prettier" aspect, combined with the "do-gooder" aspect.  That's essentially what the MAP strives for - both of those, in some capacity, for each project. 

Tune in next time for the GHOST STORY that is Project #2! (No, really, it is.) That's a long story I will tell another day!

Stay cool out there, East Coast! (We hit 100 today!)

Corie

I'm in Philadelphia!

I LOVE BEING HERE IN PHILLY!

  
I arrived here one week ago, today. My facebook status yesterday: 

"Flight to Philly: $256. Rent for room in West Philly: $310/mo. Being face to face with my dreams and destiny: priceless."

 I'll explain why I feel that way in a minute. For now, let me just say that regardless of life-changing internships, the city is cool. It's big, it's hot, it's diverse, it's loud, it's a HUGE CHANGE coming from Eugene, Oregon. I've made my way through cities before, going to summer programs in Chicago, living in Oakland and going to school in San Francisco, adventuring through L.A on weekends during college.  Never been to the East coast though, and the number one difference I've noticed so far, is that things are so OLD!  I feel like my neighborhood is a community of castles: decorated down to the last crystal doorknob, painted unexpectedly bold color combinations, each home unique and yet unified with it's neighbors. I love my West Philly neighborhood!

Besides all the new-ness and exploring, what's really getting me, is this internship. All I've had of it so far, was the orientation (we start working on Monday).  All it was, was an introduction to the other 14 interns and to the program and organization itself.  We played name games. We talked logistics. We filled out tax info.  The part that moved me almost to tears, was when the Director of the organization came in, and started talking to us about the programs and how she feels about them. A short run-down of the Mural Arts Program, and what they do:

• They make community murals. This means, they involve the wall owner, community representatives, and the artist, and come up with a design that represents the community or can show the world something about the people in the neighborhood. Then they paint it, usually with people from the community helping as well. 

• Art Education: They work in schools with little to no art programs, and make murals together with the students to decorate their school, and/or teach art lessons. (This is what I do with Lane Arts back home.)

• Restorative Justice: They work with inmates, most serving life sentences, and teach art classes. They also work with newly-released prisoners, or people just out of halfway houses, and give them an apprenticeships in carpentry, tile-working, building repair, and other types of work related to large scale city mural making. And it's working. Nationally, about 65% of people go back to prison after getting out. After this program, about 13% go back. 

• Behavioral Health: They create studios and artistic hubs within clinics and teach art classes and make murals together. They do this with mental health institutions and rehab clinics - art therapy. 

• Porchlight: They work with suicide prevention programs, victims of violence and other at-risk groups, and put an artist in there to help.

It's using ART as an INNOVATIVE tool, to help save the world, basically. 

This is Peace Corps-style community development. This is about boosting neighborhood economies.  It's building community and self-confidence in school kids. It's giving people in the justice system a way to feel some self-worth and the chance to make something positive with their own hands. It's giving hard neighborhoods a way to claim and be proud of their place in a big city. It's a way of changing things in a smaller, grass-roots type way, rather than through policy or big money. (Peace Corps, Peace Corps, Peace Corps!)

Since getting out of Peace Corps, I've been looking for something like this - a way to combine my art with something bigger. This is what I want to do with my life, and these people are doing it.  And I get to follow them around for 2 months!  I wanted this internship so badly, I applied twice, getting in the second year I tried. I had ridiculously high hopes for the whole thing, and it's relieving to see that they seem to be all they were cracked up to be.

What I'll actually be doing, is working on one of the community mural projects, under a Muralist working for the organization. It's gonna be a big garden picture, and it's at a pool. SO painting in my bathing suit! :)

 I know I'm gushing. It's just that, I feel such a sense of destiny and that I am on exactly the right path. I don't know where it's going to lead me yet, but I know I'm pointed in the right direction. My heart is happy. 

I will keep this updated....

Corie

Tree Murals

Well, I know I haven't been posting lately, but it's Summertime and the kiddos are off and climbing trees and swimming in lakes (who am I kidding....they're playing their Wii's and Xbox. It's Oregon, and it's raining.).

I've been trying to stay busy during this slow and unemployed time, with my own mural business. Here's what I've been up to, professionally:

- Creating a brand new website that's completely centered on my mural career. Now that I've decided that's really the direction I want to go most in my life career-wise, I'm completely re-designing the whole thing with this focus.  If you need a website, have good computer skills (but no, you don't need to know html or any other coding for this), go to the wix website and make a site for yourself.  They have templates available for free or you can buy a package without advertising. It's AMAZINGLY awesome.  Really, try it before you spend tons of money on someone to build your site or time learning other programs yourself.

- Created a custom mural for a local non-profit.  I have been involved with Nearby Nature since I was in Middle school back in the 90's. They are an incredible, inspiring environmental and educational organization in my community. And they needed some visual magic at their headquarters.  They just re-painted their Park Host House (the house for the guardians of the wilderness park where they work)  a beautifully bright sky blue. The house looked gorgeous, except for their beaten down, scratched up door. I painted the Nearby Nature logo and a forest pathway on their door and entryway to pull everything together for them.

- Painted a custom Oak Tree mural for a client. The woman who commissioned this mural felt very connected to a local mountain, covered in Oak trees. She told me she felt a spiritual connection and peace about the trees, and wanted to bring that feeling into her home. We decided on a simple sihouette design. The challenge for this project, was pinpointing exactly what it was that would give my client this feeling from my artwork. In this case, it was really an example of the artist as a communicator, and a middle man between a client's vision and what can be manifested in real paint. It was difficult for my client to tell me exactly what she wanted because I couldn't feel what was in her heart - a feeling that was difficult for her to explain. Would longer branches do it? A shorter trunk? A wider canopy? All of these small details come together and give off a certain feeling -  one that I am trying to match to my client. In the end, after visiting the trees that inspired the project, and one round of changes, she was very happy with her bedroom mural. Another lesson in very careful and active listening, patience, and trusting instincts. A fun project that provided growth for both sides.

So that's what I've been up to! Next time you hear from me, I will be in Philadelphia, working on my mural internship with the Mural Arts Program! Can't wait! I'll keep this updated from time to time so you can see what I'm working on.

Philly-bound,

Corie