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This beautiful home is a blank canvas. |
It was a tossup between a squid and a peacock. But before which animal was decided, I had to answer the question as to whether or not I would paint a mural on Sara's
house. "Hell yeah," I said. And with that we started thinking about
the upcoming project for a private dwelling in the Kirkwood neighborhood
of Atlanta, GA.
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This beautiful taped paper is a blank canvas. |
Man, peacock with the eyes and the colors and the feathers or the three hearted squid with
undulating tentacles possibly wrapping the house. Such a tossup
here. Maybe both? They both have beaks. Peaquid. Squeecock. Erm, we
decided on the peacock, because it reminds me more of Sara; her
colorful life; and the mythological reference to Hera and Argus and 100
eyes - a majestic symbol of our friendship. Oh and her old bungalow
seemed to be painted just right for the addition of a colorful bird.
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This beautiful design is the accepted version. |
A couple of preliminary roughs were sent and accepted prior to traveling
to ATL. Time was of the essence -- winter weather would soon be upon
us. So if a mural was to be painted, the Fates would need to be kind,
and allow us to arrive at a satisfactory design quickly. The bulk of
the design happened while I was down in Atlanta. I arrived on a Monday morning. We worked on the design pretty much everyday until Wednesday at 11am.
There were breaks in there somewhere to take in the nearby graffiti;
enjoy the trampoline with her family during the Thanksgiving Break; and
share a bottle of Four Saints Brewing Company's "Helping Hand Of Ginger
Imperial Wit" beer.
Nothing
like a little bit of pressure to derive the design -- we got the green
light late Wednesday morning, procured the supplies, and started
painting on Wednesday afternoon. Drawing to scale the 32nds and 64ths
of inches was the most time consuming. I gave others a headache just
watching me.
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This beautiful team paints the (left) canvas. |
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These beautiful rusted cans inspect the front left canvas. |
The
rest is a blur. A colorful blur of smiles, community help, and flying
paint. We started cutting in the large sections on the old wooden
clapboard siding. But let me back up a step -- Sara worked from home
this week. She had already pressure washed the house for the upcoming
mural. She made and received all sorts of business calls (she sets up
local restaurants with food supplies -- a busy time during Thanksgiving
Week). As a co-parent she also hosted her children and neighborhood
children throughout the week. She also hosted said artist and his
design meetings -- providing constant coffee, food, Dark-N-Stormys, and
feedback. Sara also put together a Thanksgiving meal for 15. See what I
mean by the goddess Hera reference? And all fortified with laughter,
grace, power, and elegance. Yes, she made it look easy - and it was
quite inspiring.
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The beautiful team assembles on turkey carving day. |
Next thing I knew it was Wednesday evening. The sun was about to set.
Work lights appeared and illuminated. A space heater was ignited.
While stretched out on a ladder she hollered at me from the ground,
"support is on the way." Several more brushes got wet as I met
neighborhood friends here to be part of the magic. Painting a mural is
one thing. Painting a mural on clapboard, in the dark, and creatively
directing others for the first time - is another matter. Oh but the
reassurance came from the patron. "Les, you are so good at figuring
things out on the fly and using all the resources available to you."
That's coming from the co-parenting, high volume salesperson, who parks
in the middle of a chaotic train depot parking lot, because she can --
and then directs traffic to not only get her car out of the jam -- but
others as well -- and looks absolutely, naturally fabulous while doing
it. Mad-situational-can-do-high-functioning-woman.
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The beautiful almost-completely visible canvas. |
They say the finished painting is but merely the residue of the creative
process. I'd like to cite this experience as a reference to this
concept. Yes, the mural is pretty cool. It integrates vibrant imagery
and color into the existing structure. Image and house now coexist and
the viewer has to walk about the outside of the house to experience the
entire mural. But the process -- 50 hours of designing and redesigning
during the week of the painting and previous R&D from within the
local library. And then all that magic during those hours of painting
-- neighborhood folk stopping by on their walk to inquire. Catching a
glimpse of a car slowing down to take a better look. The ethereal
passing 'oohs and aahs.' The folks at the paint store getting jazzed
when they hear about the project and one employee's discovery that her
children play with Sara's. Constant feel good music from Sam Cooke,
Leon Bridges, and Alabama Shakes while painting with others. Catching
up with dear friends, and making new ones. Sharing
brush techniques with others from 20 years of painting
and learning about new ways to paint too. And finally, hearing
from my patron how happy she is to know that she will walk up to this
house and see the residue of these experiences. Every. Day.
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