Creating a public mural

I have been chosen!

How exciting right?! I know this is a website about ceramics and all things clay, but I have been working on something a little different. Right before the COVID quarantine back in March I applied to paint a local storm drain mural focused on conservation and keeping our Earth clean. I was chosen to paint the mural that I designed in downtown Simpsonville!

On the left you can see the original drawing that I worked up for the competition. I have had a goal for awhile now to create some sort of public art (not that ceramics are not public necessarily). I applied to this on a whim, knowing that I am primarily seen as a potter. Yet I have always loved to paint. That is really how I got into art to begin with.

Painting in my past

I remember my mom buying me a Bob Ross book that I worked along side on my parents back porch. I painted for hours out there in the summer with the easel and paints that my parents also had bought me. I couldn’t get enough of the different techniques and styles of the brushes and how they effected the paint application. (getting a little nerdy over here…) I still use my painting and drawing skills on my pots all of the time. This is how I add the fun into the functional and the pretty into the practical in my current work. On the right you can see one of my first paintings circa 2010 from my summer days spent on the back porch painting.

I am so excited to get started on this mural. My paint brushes have been pulled out, the paint has been ordered, and the spot has been power washed! It seems so small, but it is very exciting to me that I get to leave even a tiny mark on the town that I have lived in for the past 5 years.