Local Artists & Illustrators Paint a Mural
From April to June, myself and two other artists and illustrators, have been assisting amazing artist, Melodee Strong, paint a colorful mural on the wall of Treehouse Records for the well-attended, annual Lyndale Open Streets neighborhood festival which took place on June 4th, earlier this month.
The mural’s delicious bright, candy-colored palette really livens up the entire space. Whether they were walking, biking or driving, whether they were residents or just passing through, people yelled their delight [sometimes screaming from their speeding vehicles at the top of lungs] : “Awesome work!” Really beautiful!” “Thanks for doing this!”
Neighborhood-Painted, Colorful Public Artwork
Little did they know that, on the day of the event, about 170 creative souls, from 3 yrs-olds to the young-at-heart, volunteered and went to town on the wall, painting whatever base color they liked from the options we gave them. Seeing random individuals who didn’t know each other create something wonderful together at such a scale, in the space of a few hours, was exhilarating.
A few days later, we came back in, polished, refined, corrected and cleaned up the final design with a highlight here, some details there, a few shadows and a little magic everywhere. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this experience, especially after experiencing it from initial sketches…
...to the final product!
Although the mural’s scrumptious colors would probably not appeal to everyone, the wave of appreciation made us all feel 20 thousand feet tall. After all, our role as artist is to uplift, delight and inspire. Aaamen!
Between you and me, however, island-girl or not, I don’t think I can survive another version of the Minnesotan summer: a hot, sticky 90-degree hell – with rarely shade, cloud nor rain in the forecast! Need inspiration to cure a sad wall or a blah door? Check out other murals I’ve painted in Turkey and Guatemala! Deep dive into the other illustration projects I’ve worked on in my Portfolio pages. For help with illustration, design or art projects, you can always contact me here.
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GOOD TO KNOW:
This post is part of a long-term project to edit and migrate the collection of 354 + blog posts from my old, DIY Wordpress.org website: www.patriciajacques.com, to their new home, at "Wander and Paint," the new blog name for my artist website and shop www.UnitedWanderlust.com. I will release each article as time allows, in addition to new posts, news, updates and musings about the shop, the art and the art practice.
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