Warm and Fuzzy: Positivity Board!

Hey everyone!

Happy weekend! Mine has been really epic already and it's only 12:30 pm on Saturday. Last night I went to see Michael Franti & Spearhead with my cute man friend and it was SO. GOOD. Michael Franti concerts are all about spreading messages of hope and change and filling up people's hearts (cheese factory, I know. But it's true!) He was wearing a shirt that said "Eat, sleep, hug, kiss, dance, change the world, repeat." A man whose music is full of good vibes, and whose concerts are even more full of them. He reminds people to stay positive, open, hopeful and loving. 

This lil tiny "mural" project was a lil tiny version of that - a reminder. A co-worker's daughter requested a "diva board" for her birthday. The "diva board" is something that a character from a TV show has above her bed.  But this kiddo re-named hers, a "positivity board", which I like a lot better too. Just a quick, cute, birthday gift I was happy to help out with. You go, girl. Shine.

The birthday girl with her board!

Her mom took this photo at the exact moment she saw her present. Cutest!

Pretty Lady in a Forest

Hey everyone! 

Coming at you from sunny San Francisco! (Yes, I said sunny. It's gorgeous here - no fog in sight!)  I'm here visiting my sister with my parents. Great to get in some family time, and check out the various murals/street art in this city! Love the rainbows painted onto the crosswalks in the Castro district ;)

Here's a project I did a few weeks ago, but haven't shared here yet. This is a 5' x 2.5' mural panel that I made on wood, and installed on a client's fence enclosure for her hot tub. The other side of this fence (the side seen by her neighbors and the public) is a larger forest panel I already created for this client (see this older post) Inside her house, is this mural. Happy to have return-business, and grow her little collection of Corie-murals :)

This is an image of Guanyin - the goddess of compassion, celebrated in a variety of cultures (read her Wiki article here) While I admittedly don't know much beyond the little I was able to research about her, I know she means a lot to my client. I was happy to paint my own interpretation of her (probably got a good use of my artistic license here). Glad to provide a visual for helping my client to feel more at peace in her home/outdoor sanctuary area. This one just makes me want to exhaaaaaallllllllle. Ahhhhhhhhh :)

Have a great week you guys! 

A Mural at Home

Hey everyone!

 

Sometimes, you get real busy and caught up in the freelance-hustlin', small-business-growin', money-makin', life, and you just have to stop and throw your parents a frickin' bone.

 

My parents have my very first mural I ever EVER painted EVER on the wall of their kitchen. I painted this when I was in high school:

 

I'm embarrassed to show you that, but for the sake of a good blog post, there you have it. Back in the day, my mom had just finished tearing off all our old ugly wallpaper in our kitchen, and she was going to paint it. I remember wanting to try painting a mural SO bad - I was obsessed. My supportive and brave parents let me paint that mural instead of making the kitchen wall a nice, solid color. I also was able to pass it off as a mother's day present, so that was definitely another win for me.

 

That mural sparked everything for me. I am living my dream of being a muralist now, and I owe everything to that mother's day present, and the parents who let me paint it. My parents would have gatherings and their friends would see the mural in the kitchen, and hire me to paint walls in their houses for $10 an hour. Pretty sweet gig as a high schooler actually (my prices have raised a bit since then). I kept getting jobs sporadically throughout college and afterwards, and slowly built my business, baby step by baby step. #soflippingrateful

 

Anyway, I've had to look at that mural a LOT over the years. Eventually, after 4 years of gaining skills in art school, I could not ethically let my parents keep it looking like that. I re-painted it to look like this a few years ago:

 

About a month ago, my parents re-did their countertops, and the countertop people had to plaster over almost all of the orchids on the right. Last weekend, I went to fix the spot, and found a whole lot of other spots I wanted to fix. "Perfectionist" is definitely not a word I would use to describe myself in regular life, or in the way I create art. But this wall is different and special - It's my first. And it's my parent's. They should have something I feel proud of. Here's where I ended up.... finished....for now...

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!