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. ;)

Done aaaand done!

Hey guys, 

Finished my painting this morning and thought I would update! There wasn't much of a consensus on whether or not to mess with adding animals and/or bugs in the bubbles, but in the end I decided to let it be. Might be too much, and I can always add those in later. For now, I'm just going to let it hang on the wall for awhile and see how I like it. ;) Can't explain how much I've been needing to paint something like this. Feels great! Especially when this particular imagery has been rolling around in the back of my mind and pages of sketchbooks for far too long. Was about time it got made. :) Now going to go out and enjoy the sunshine. Happy weekend everybody!

Madagascar side detail

Portland side detail

CRAZY NEWS!! (and progress on latest painting)

Hi All,

First off, I have to share some exciting news!! I was brought aboard to work as a muralist for a company that builds and manages memory care and senior living facilities all up and down the west coast!! The sad part of this is, I will be taking over for a muralist who had worked with the company for 15 years, and sadly passed away before he could finish one of the projects. So my first job will be to finish that up. That facility is in Eastern WA., so I will be heading up there to work on that very soon. Luckily, I have a stellar boss at my other job, who supports my mural work 100% and will let me re-arrange my hours at work so that I can go up to Washington for a bigger chunk of time than just a weekend. This is exactly the kind of thing I had been envisioning and hoping would happen with my mural business. I've only been in Portland less than 3 months, and already I got connected with an interior design firm who gave me a great nursery job, and now this other company who could potentially turn into a long-term, repeat business type of deal. It's really crazy to me how things are all of a sudden happening once I: #1, moved to a bigger city, #2, deliberately decided that murals are the kind of art I would most enjoy making for people, and then #3, worked really freaking hard and learned all I could to make that happen. Then the universe just kind of started dropping things in my lap. Pretty grateful for all of it, and feeling so stinking lucky.

In other news, please help me decide what to do with this painting!!!!! I posted a blog about it last time...part of my Madagascar series, and kind of just about how it feels to live in another place and culture and make it your home, and then come back to where you lived before. Adjustment. Re-adjustment. And also it's about this Malagasy proverb: "Tsihy be lambanana ny ambanilanitra", which basically means, "everything under the sky is woven together like one big mat."  So. I'm definitely going to be writing those words in the border - the Malagasy on top, and the english along the bottom. What I'm debating about, is whether or not to put little critters in those circle bubble things in the middle. (I used a cut paper collage for this and then painted over it). I was thinking different cool bugs - dragonflies, etc. - one inside of each bubble. Paint those in, or leave it the way it is??? Help! I can't decide. Leave me comments if you have an opinion :) Feels really great to get into a groove on a painting I'm making for myself again. Will post again when this is finished... so close!

Corie

Sneak peek of a new painting, and a look back...

I'm starting a new painting! Always nice to get my brushes in the paint, and especially when it's on canvas, for myself. (Although I have to say I am in the mural-mindset... feels weird to use such little brushes, and I'm squeezing out WAY more paint than I'm needing) Anyway, here's the start:

It's a new painting that will be part of this Madagascar series (about my Peace Corps experience there, in case you are brand new to my blog and haven't heard me mention that a thousand times!). This one is based on the Malagasy proverb: "Tsihy be lambanana ny ambanilanitra", which basically means, "everything under the sky is woven together like one big mat." I love that.

I felt caught between two worlds a lot. It's the old metphor they teach you during Peace Corps training. They say that before Peace Corps, you see everything out of yellow glasses lenses. Then you go to your host country, where they see out of blue ones. By the time you're out of Peace Corps, you end up seeing through green ones for the rest of your life (cuz they mix together. color theory and stuff. right?). Anyway, sometimes I feel so far removed from how I lived there and my friends that are still there that I have no way of contacting. This painting is kinda about trying to feel connected to that still... hence the Portland cityscape that's starting to come together on the left, and my village I lived in on the right. We'll see...long way to go yet, but I'll show you when it's done. Painting this tonight has got me all sentimental and listening to my Malagasy music playlists and reading through old journals for inspiration. Found one from St. Patrick's Day, 4 years ago:

"Happy St. Patricks' Day! Wishing I had a big green Guiness to celebrate with right about now. Yesterday was a good day. Lori fell asleep laying her head on my lap at Silvio's party, which went late into the night. The moon was already high in the sky, shedding blue light onto everything, the petrol lamps shining yellow light in pools. Warmth. Lori's heavy, sleepy head on my leg, her little body curled around my knee. In this light, my skin didn't glow, and give me away as different. Not tonight. Not dancing and clapping and singing... tonight I am just a person in the dark. To Lori, I am still just Kori, just "Mama", Soa Vanona (my Malagasy name), her friend."

Art and Fear

"Art and Fear" by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Have you read it? If not, I recommend it for all you creative-types. It was assigned to me by more than one professor while I was in college. Here's a quote:

“To require perfection is to invite paralysis. The pattern is predictable: as you see error in what you have done, you steer your work toward what you imagine you can do perfectly. You cling ever more tightly to what you already know you can do – away from risk and exploration, and possibly further from the work of your heart. You find reasons to procrastinate, since to not work is to not make mistakes.”

I feel like those words really ring true for anyone who's ever gone through the creative process - in any artistic medium. Here's how it plays out for me: I feel like my creative energy is like money in a bank. I spend it in different ways - painting, beading, sewing, re-doing furniture, etc. etc. I will wither and die if I don't get this energy out somehow! I know that sounds dramatic, and it is, but that's kind of how it feels. I spend a lot of this energy on projects that I'm working on for a client or a boss. Today I reclaimed some of that energy to use on a painting just for myself. No client, no one else's aesthetic to attend to but my own. The possibilities are so wide open for this big blank canvas that is just MINE. I'm working on an ongoing series of paintings I've been making since I got home from the Peace Corps. I've got 9 paintings now, and countless drawings for more. Though I have been working on other series too during that time (Literary Heroines - both series can be seen here), 9 paintings is not a whole lot for me to have done since 2010. It's sometimes so paralyzing to start a painting in this series. Just like the quote says, I end up procrastinating and working on other things because this series is SO CLOSE and important to me, that I'm afraid to ruin it. If I don't start a painting, I can't ruin it. See what I mean? I've talked to my best friend about this a bit, who is a writer. It's sometimes the projects that are the very closest to your heart that are the hardest to get started on. You want to do them justice. You want to make them as good as you imagine them being in your mind. Today I pushed through those feelings, and just made the first colors appear on the canvas. I'll keep you guys updated ;) And in the meantime: Just. Get. Started. !