I finished this really big thing!!!!

CHEERS!! I'm done!!

This was taken on one of the most exciting days of my life, I would say. The day that marked the end of one of the coolest things to happen to me... and the beginning of hopefully more cool things. Either way, yesterday was a good day.

I've spent about 2 months painting murals inside the Parkview memory care facility in NE Portland. 4 major mural walls, plus tons of other small things everywhere...animals, random faux brick and faux other stuff, clouds, signs, flowers, animals, etc. It was such a variety of things that I got to paint! I still haven't uploaded all the final pictures, but you can like my facebook page to see the albums of stuff I've already posted (which is a lot). Yesterday was the open house for the community and potential new residents and their families (friends-in-real-life, if you're reading this, I didn't do a massive invite thingy... I wasn't really sure if I should bring a humungous posse with me to this thing... but it's been amazing to have your support!) It's been a massive amount of work. Well, maybe not really, but it felt like a lot because I did it all on top of my full time job, and was up against a deadline. Which I just barely cleared. (I was painting the last wall till 11:30 the night before the grand opening!! Talk about cutting it close!) Most of the time I was painting, I was coming to work when all the other workers were already home for the night. So it was cool to actually see and hear people responding to the walls.

If you're not new to my blog, you already know the story of why this project means a lot to me - my Grandma had dementia, she was also an artist. In a big way, I feel like this whole friggin' project is dedicated to her memory. I used her paintbrushes to paint it. She would have really like the place, and it feels GREAT to be a part of something that's gonna make people with memory diseases feel good. So that's the warm fuzzy part, and it feels real good. The other part is that I'm a professional muralist...for real. It's my DREAM, and this is my first big taste of success at it - (my first big  commercial/for-a-company, public job... that I did for strangers, not friends of my parents! And they're paying me what I'm not even sure I'm worth.) Grateful, grateful.

This weekend, I'm taking time to catch up on life - do laundry, go grocery shopping for real, get a full 8 hrs of sleep.... this blog! It feels wonderful. Now that I'm getting caught up with myself, I'm excited to catch up with my friends. Pictures to come, soon. Wooohooooo!!!

MURAL-A-THON 2014... summer edition!

I don't even think I told you guys what I'm up to this summer yet! Well, remember the Walla Walla murals? I'm doing that again...but here in Portland!!

This project is insanely cool. I'm working with a company that builds retirement communities and memory care facilities. They are known for the murals inside their buildings - they're everywhere! They help the residents relax and feel at home. So I'm getting to fill their newest memory care facility in Portland with murals! It's still under construction, so I even got to help choose the paint colors for the walls, before I mural them! It's going to be my biggest collection of murals inside a single building, ever. The people I'm working for are giving me so much creative control, it's kind of unbelievable. They even trusted me (when I didn't trust myself) to try using a paint spray gun for the first time, to paint clouds all over the ceiling of the "great room" in the main living area. And use a scissor lift, which I've also never done. I just.... I feel so incredibly grateful. I feel like I can't believe my luck. But then also, I know I've worked my ass off to get to this point. From painting my parent's kitchen wall into a tropical garden as a high schooler, to charging family friends $10 an hour to paint their walls, to getting clients I didn't know personally, to making a business name and filing taxes as such, and now working as a legit professional contractor on a huge project. It's been a lot of soul-searching ("I know I'm an artist, but what should I DOOOO?"), rejections, and doing the "starving-artist" thing. I was thinking about this today while I was painting, and I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude, I wanted to cry. Janet Jackson in the headphones, burrito in my belly, paintbrush in my hand, doing the thing that makes me so indescribably happy, and knowing that it really, truly, is my legit job and business now. I feel blessed beyond belief. I guess if you can figure out what your really wanna do most, and figure out the order of the steps you can take to get there, and take them a teeny bit at a time, you'll get there eventually.

That's me, totally covered in white paint, from my paint sprayer. Need to invest in goggled and a respirator, asap!

I'm also happy to report that I'm off the scissor lift, and painting at ground level again! Ahhhhh the sweet, sweet, ground! Stay tuned for pictures, but I'll just say right now that it's about the most Portland-y mural ever - Mt. Hood, roses, and the city skyline. :)

Goodnight Portland... **Thank you**.....

NEWS! Murals for Madagascar

Hi All,

I just received exciting news from Madagascar! I used to work there as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and when I got back to the US, I started a project with a 4th grade classroom in my hometown, where I taught them about Madagascar and we did art projects related to the country, and then we also painted a big mural on cloth. The mural was about how to care for a mosquito net - in pictures and also with words in Malagasy (pictures speak louder than words in rural areas with high illiteracy rates). We shipped the mural to a contact in Madagascar, and the mural was installed on the wall of a rural hospital. Here was my original design, the kids who made it, and its final installation:

I told Peace Corps staff that they were welcome to distribute my design to new volunteers looking for projects they could do in and with their communities, to help fight the spread of Malaria. Well, I've received some pictures of new Peace Corps Volunteers' murals! Love it. I can't wait to do this again with another classroom. Really teaches kids to think globally, while teaching art technique and skills and also about another country they may not know much about. Want to get involved? If you are a current Peace Corps Volunteer and want details on installation and my design, contact me!! I'm still hoping to create a set of instructions for classroom teachers to be able to re-create this whole project themselves... but that have to come in time. :) YAY!!!

My Artist Statement (for murals)

So recently, I applied to be on a muralist roster. Kind of just a list of people who do murals that the city of Portland keeps on hand, and on their website, to refer to whenever anyone goes looking for a muralist. Kind of a biggie for me to try and be on. So I thought I would share the little artist statement I wrote for that application - it's basically my whole mural-ing deal in a nutshell, since I had to keep it super short. :) Wish me luck!
_______________________________________________________

My mission is to bring: POSITIVITY, BEAUTY, INSPIRATION, LEARNING and UNDERSTANDING to environments, through painting walls.

I started painting murals as a high school student in Eugene, Oregon. My Mom hated the wallpaper in our kitchen, so we scraped it off, and I painted a tropical garden. During that first mural, I fell in love with painting BIG. Since then, I have been painting murals in private homes, businesses, with students, in memory care facilities, and with prison inmates.

After college, I joined the Peace Corps, where I lived and worked in Madagascar for 2 years. In Madagascar, I painted murals about health and environment topics in rural hospitals and schools. The murals became visual teaching aids, where most are illiterate. It became clear to me that murals can add value to the world, outside of aesthetics. Murals can teach concepts, illustrate ideas, tell stories and change minds. 

After returning from the Peace Corps, I joined the Lane Arts Council's Teaching Artist Roster in Eugene, OR. I taught mural-making to students in grades K-12, in over 10 public schools. I once facilitated a 4th grade in painting a mural on cloth, about Malaria prevention, and shipped it to Madagascar where it was installed in a rural clinic.  I have witnessed the rise in student’s self-esteem and sense of community when they work together on a mural. The same way that a school community is strengthened by a collaborative mural project, public murals allow artists and community members to honor their own neighborhoods. I enjoy both facilitating mural projects with groups, and creating them solo. 

Murals can turn forgotten spaces into beautiful ones. Whether that transformation occurs inside a private home or in a public space, murals allow people to tell their stories. What I love about being a muralist, is that I get to help be that storyteller. Murals allow walls to live up to their full potential. They allow people to speak without using words, and to be understood.

OREGON!

I'm not talking about art or murals today. Today is a historic day for Oregon and for our country: LOVE WINS! A federal judge ruled Oregon’s marriage ban for same-sex couples is unconstitutional!

"I believe that if we can look for a moment past gender and sexuality, we can see in these plaintiffs nothing more or less than our own families. Families who we would expect our Constitution to protect, if not exalt, in equal measure. With discernment we see not shadows lurking in closets or the stereotypes of what was once believed; rather, we see families committed to the common purpose of love, devotion, and
service to the greater community." --U.S. Judge Michael McShane

This October will mark 7 years since I came out as bisexual to my friends and family. This June will mark 4 years since I got engaged to a woman. Our relationship ended, and I am single now, but I feel very emotional knowing that whoever I do end up marrying, male or female, I can MARRY them, not "marry" them. That is incredible. I feel so happy right now! So....free. :) Thanks Judge McShane, and thanks Oregon and everyone who worked so hard for this in our state. Now I have even MORE reasons to brag about Oregon to everyone I meet who lives anywhere else! ;) YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!

MURAL TIME LAPSE VIDEO!!

First of all, I know I said weekly posts, but... life happens. And lately, life has been great - full of travel and family and friends time! Spent a weekend in Seattle with my bestie, then my sister was in town and we got to spend a week together with her and our parents. It's been really nice to get to see my fav out-of-towners. But now, back to the normal routine. That is, for the next week or so... Have I mentioned that I'm going to be a work-a-holic this Summer?? If you want to hang out with me, check back in August, when I resume having a life. Haha! I'll be going full time at my "day job" as a graphic designer, then working nights and weekends painting murals in another memory care facility here in Portland. The memory care facility has a deadline - a grand opening party and residents moving in ONE MONTH from when I'll be starting painting. Pretty crazy. But sometimes having deadlines really motivates me. I'm kind of looking forward to heading over to an empty building after work and just rocking out to my music, de-stressing with my acrylics. It will be nice, I think :) And I will of course be keeping you updated with more pictures than your browser can handle. ;)

Anyway, what I'm REALLY here to show you this week, is this:




My mural time lapse video is finally finished!!! This was a mural that I gifted my boss, who's about to welcome a little one :) But shhhh don't tell anyone I'm giving them away ;) We set up a video camera for the 8-ish hours that I painted, and I brought it down to 3.5 minutes. I tell you what, I don't know why I haven't done this yet. I love watching these videos, and now I have my own! Very exciting. Looking forward to maybe doing more of these using the webcam in my mac (I've heard you can do this?!). Anyway, enjoy and see you soon!

Corie

Thoughts and Ramblings on Mural-ing

I'm going to try to stick to blogging every week. I started this when I was working as an Artist in Residence in the public schools, and this blog was a way for me to share lesson plans with others. I used to lay out detailed instructions for lessons about famous artists, and the process of making murals with children. It was great to be able to just hand teachers a link to this site, so they could remember the lessons I was doing with their students, and use them for long after I'm out of their classrooms. Now I'm not teaching anymore. So what is this space for? I think it's been a nice way to share my current projects, and also a way to force myself to reflect. So, this week I am without a project, but here are some thoughts I jotted down while I was painting murals up in Walla Walla:

Thoughts on painting murals:

• Best tool ever: 1" flat brush.

• Best part of painting: Putting in the highlights and the lightest lights at the very end.... I can hardly wait for this part, every time!! Painting edges where sky or background meets the object/foreground.

• Worst part of painting: Putting down the very first base layers: BO-RING. Also, looks like crap at first, which is slightly scary. Especially if I have to leave the mural in this state at someone's house before I come back the next time. I always feel the need to give a disclaimer: "Don't worry, I promise it will get better later! DONT LOOK AT IT NOW!"

• How to paint fast: Stop thinking. Stop judging every move you're making. Listen to podcasts on really interesting stuff, or songs with a lot of lyrics (Atmosphere is my fav for this). The words distract me from forming any inside my own head, which can lead to totally counter-productive self-talk/self-doubt, which slows me down. The key is to make creative decisions quickly, so that you are using instinct and feelings, rather than over-analytical thought. Now, this is not to say that some thought doesn't go into making murals - I do think about what I'm doing in the beginning during the planning/sketching stage, and also in moments where I stop and stand back from a wall to look at what needs to happen next. 

• Livin' your Dream: You have to DECIDE to do it, and then you have to WORK at it. Someone told me one time that you can do ANYTHING you want, but you can't do EVERYTHING you want. First, you have to DECIDE. It was really good advice for me at the time. A couple years ago, I was kind of floundering. I'd just gotten back from the Peace Corps, and was working in a grocery store bakery, trying to figure out what the hell to do with myself. It was everything I could do not to re-apply for the Peace Corps, or a volunteer position in Jamaica. I was interested in, and actively considering trying to build careers in all of the following: illustrator, tattoo artist, muralist, concept artist for animation or any kind of art for the entertainment industry, and art teacher. I was also poking around a lot on usajobs.gov, looking for government jobs in everything from Peace Corps Recruiter, to pretty much anything with the EPA, or Fish and Wildlife, etc. (After Peace Corps, they give you one year of non-competitive eligibility for government jobs - it just makes it easier for you to get hired in one). I even went to a government career fair, and the Secret Service had a table. I took a pamphlet. I was pretty lost, OK? Anyway, point of all of this, is that I was going in a thousand different directions, and thought that the moment I picked one, I was closing all the other doors, forever. I eventually made a pro/con list of all my very top career choices. And I rated them. In the end, murals kind of won over everything else. I knew I liked being around people and working for clients I could actually meet in person, and personally help in a teeny tiny way. I liked being able to brighten people's spaces, and help tell their stories on their walls. Cheesy, I know. But I liked the human aspect of making murals for people. I also really, really like to paint BIG. I like the variety of work I get to do too. I remember being in the Peace Corps, and making lists of all the things I really missed about being in America. I missed burritos with green sauce. I missed my family. I missed the feeling of being in someone's house and making them a mural. The fact that I missed that SO much, and would paint murals for people while I was in Madagascar, with the crappiest of wall situations, really told me that mural-making was just that important to me. I really believe that just making that CONSCIOUS DECISION that murals were my most favorite artistic career choice, has set in motion everything that's led up to getting me some success at doing it now. I think that part was really important. It's crazy to be able to look back at all that, and see all the pieces leading up to where I'm at now, feeling like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel really grateful for every little piece of it though, even the hard parts. 

Ok, ending this week's rambling.....now! Have a great week everyone!! :)