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!

The Most Romantic Mural Ever!

Hey Everyone! 

First things first: June 26, marriage was made legal for same sex couples in USA. Hooraayyyyyyy!! As someone who was gonna get "gay married" to someone I loved at one time, it's a super personal "win". As just a regular American citizen in general, it's a super awesome step in the right direction of making our country more welcoming to all people. SO on that note, get ready for the more romantical (and gay) mural EVER! Hooray gay stuff and hooray LOVE! Ok, onto the project:

My client originally wanted to surprise her girlfriend for her birthday with this super cute mural of the two of them in their home. BUT, the more she thought about it, she decided to let her girlfriend look at a sketch first, since ya know, it was gonna go on the living room wall of their house theoretically forever. She told me that when she showed her girlfriend the sketch, she cried - how adorable is that? This one was SO warm and fuzzy to be a part of. I also love when people "gift" other people with my murals. Also, strictly speaking about the art-y stuff: can more people please commission me to do night time scenes? I've discovered I love them a whole lot. I was really feeling the FLOW today too. Thoughts, worries, hours melted away and I was in a blissful trance and knocked this one out today. I love it when I go deep like that.  

Muraling selfie time!

My new toy! Isn't this the COOOLEST organizer ever? Feel so proffesh.

Sometimes your client picks the perfect shade of eggplant to paint next to your mural before you even get there to paint it. 

Cuter Electrical Panels!

Hey everyone!

Hope you guys are out enjoying the weekend as much as I have been! Friday was a full day of painting, and yesterday was a full day of fun. I am so so so so happy to work 4 days a week at my J.O.B. and one day a week mural-ing. My new schedule has really been helping me to divide my time between the 9-5, the hustle, and the rest of my life and the people I fill it with. Just feeling very very grateful. *end gushing*

Anyway, this is what I did on Friday: covered two boring grey metal electrical panels on the outside of an apartment building, with flowers and cuteness. It's just such a pure and simple happiness to be able to brighten up these teeny tiny corners of the world and make them a little more sparkly. I like art that "MEANS and SAYS SOMETHING", but I also very much enjoy making art that is simply about making things prettier.

A couple weeks go I started this project - all I had done was the big pink flower on the left, and started the roses. Then on Friday, made a push to finish the rest of that whole panel, plus the other one in the last picture. I realize I paint fast. Clients remark about that a lot. I have to say though, that it's definitely not necessarily a good thing. Working a tiny bit slower is actually one of my current professional goals - in painting murals, and in my day job as a graphic designer. I can be impatient. I want to see the results, and quickly. I want to see the images I have in my mind come alive on a wall (or electric panel, ha!). I also want to get to my favorite part of the painting process sooner (everything that happens after the first layers of paint are already down). But I'm trying this new thing where I take more time to think about what I'm doing. Who knows, maybe it's the NOT thinking that will be better after all, but we shall see. #goals Ok, less ramble, more pictures. Here's what I made:

 

Happy weekend everyone! 

<3 corie="" p="">

Waterfall Hallway!

Hey everyone!

This weekend's mural was another one of those realistic-but-not, made-up-landscape types of projects. I friggin love those. When someone says (like my latest client): incorporate these elements, and make the rest up.... that is my absolute DREAM. So, the result is, I'm not sure if this is a mural of hawaii, or the columbia river gorge. But neither I, nor my client cares. It's just a colorful and peaceful way to welcome someone into my client's house. This is painted down a long, previously blank hallway from the front door leading ino the living room. So given that I couldn't back up more than like 4 feet, taking pictures of it was super awkward. So here are a bunch of shots of it in pieces. Hooray! Stay tuned... Summer mural-making is in full force!

Flowers and Money!

Hey everyone!

I just finished this mural less than 2 hours ago and I'm already posting it! I'm never that on top of blogging and yet here we are :)

This one was in a laundry room for an apartment building with "gardens" as kind of their whole building theme. I was happy to get such a bright, cheery assignment. Just simple, colorful, beautifying of an otherwise un-exciting space. Can't wait for residents to be surprised when they do their laundry! Scroll to pictures or read on for a completely separate story... ha!

In totally other news, I know a lot of you that read this thing are my friends or parent's friends in real life, and some of you may have recently supported a dream of mine. This post describes the art show benefit event I held back in March, where I displayed all the paintings in my Madagascar series, and sold prints to benefit an organization that works there, and all over the world. So print sales have been trickling in since then, and I'm happy to tell you guys that I was able to donate $875 to Population Services International today! So grateful to those of you who bought a print, came to my show, or told me to break a leg. It's been an idea that's been in my head since Peace Corps in Madagascar, and I'm so happy it happened. Thank you guys so much for your support!!! It means more to me than you know. I also wanna just say something else real quick, cuz I'm feeling blog-y:

This past weekend, I had a friend visit who was in the Peace Corps with me, and we were talking (obviously) a lot about Peace Corps. She said that when she helped interview candidates for Peace Corps back where she lives, she hears a lot of people express concern over their college majors, or area of study - "but I'm just a theater major.... can I really be of service?" First of all, you will learn a bunch of stuff during Peace Corps training that will be helpful and relevant, but also, everyone can use their skills to be helpful in the world. You could (and people in Madagascar did) help organize a play in your village to explain why it's important to protect the forest and not eat lemurs!

Anyway, point is, you can use your skills to do good things. When I was younger, I thought painting was kinda silly in comparison with more "noble" careers, and wouldn't actually help that much. Now that I'm smarter (haha), I've been able to find ways to use my art to be helpful. So don't listen to people - or yourself - who say you can't be helpful by doing your "thing", whatever that is. Ok now pictures :)

The Cow! and murals-to-be

Hi everyone!

I finished and brought this little painting to it's new home last week. Nope, not a mural - only a couple feet wide and tall! Client told me she wanted: a cow, painted in an abstract-y/unrealistic color type of style, with a tiny red barn in the background. DID YOU SAY MAKE IT EXTRA COLORFUL?!?! Let's do more like this, forever! Client was happy, and the little calf that I took the liberty of adding, turned out to be meaningful to her as well. This was a reminder of childhood memories and she said "Thank you for painting my story". That's literally, my mission statement as a muralist/artist-for-hire. 

 And speaking of that, here's a few new ideas/photoshopped sketches for murals of the future! Can't wait to get painting these babies!! Seriously, I actually can't wait. PAINT ALL THE WALLLLZ! Stay tuned to see how these actually end up - because improvising! Have a great week everyone!

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 :)