So, how does an artist get to do commissioned murals for the best hospital for children in the world? When my son was an infant and I was a stay-at-home-mom while my new husband worked as a mechanic, I took full advantage of being able to flex my artistic passions. But wanting to connect more with people, as I felt isolated in my new role as mother, I went to the community center around the corner and asked if they needed an oil painting instructor, for free of course. I happened to walk in when the seniors were having their acrylic/watercolor studio time. They told me the center didn't permit oil painting because of the odor. So invited them all to my home studio where I said I'd teach them for free how to oil paint. Sure enough, they showed up. After a few months of twice-a-week classes, I had a group of four people that had amassed a beautiful collection of rendition oil paintings of their favorite artist work.
Sitting in my living room thinking to myself, "I have to do something with this work" I opened up the phone book and started calling galleries. No one was interested. Finally, I reached out to Urban Art Commission and a woman by the name of Danita Beck said she'd like to come out and visit my studio to see the work. She ended up displaying the entire collection at Shelby County Board of Commissions Executive Suites for two years. That's how I landed on the Memphis art map. It generated a lot of interest in my work. Tran Bui asked if I would do a televised interview for her Get Smart Report and I got a segment on the evening news for Channel 24. This led to me very quickly growing in the Memphis art community. I exhibited all over the place and did volunteer murals and other beautification projects. Danita was impressed with my taking full advantage of this platform, and connected me with Claudio Perez Leon, CEO and Founder of Art Impact, the amazing architect and artist that designed 17,000 square feet of murals for St. Jude. I remember going to his house for my first interview where he asked me to draw. I sat and illustrated what he asked me to. He asked a few questions and then said he'd be in touch. I heard from him soon thereafter, and he asked me to come up to his house for another interview. Same thing. I drew for him. He said he would give me shot.
I was hired. However, that didn't necessarily mean I had the job. First, I had to find a sitter for my year-old son. Once that was accomplished, I drove to St. Jude and went directly to human resources to be screened. There I was given my "engineering" pass to wear while working (hardly work I have to say). With my brushes in hand, and paint clothes on, I got in the elevator and went up to the second floor. When the doors opened it was like a ghost town. No one was there. I stepped out into the wide hallway where there were bright colorful murals. It felt like a dream. I couldn't beleive I was standing in St. Jude about to paint murals. It was mixed emotions. I had to leave my son, but would be able to do the most important art of my life.
I started wandering around looking for the project manager. When we finally met, she told me that she knew I had talent if Claudio sent me, but more importantly that it was necessary for me to be able to paint in the style that Claudio designed the mural, for consistency. I was given the task of painting a stone bridge over and around a large hall entrance. We were using a dry-brush technique that I was familair with. She said I had to prove myself and that if I did a decent job that she'd allow me to come back the next day to try again. I guess I did good enough because I ended spending the next several months up there 5 - 6 days a week for up to 8 hours a day.
We had five artists on the Art Impact team. Each artist was designated to paint a certain aspect of the murals. One person did all the mechanical, lineal elements like cars and buildings, one did portraiture and animals, and two others did natural settings and landscape features like sky, trees, clouds, flowers, hills, and you guessed it, stone bridges. In a few months, I painted nearly 15,000 square feet of sky, clouds, hills, flowers and trees.
I would often stop to chat with patients, their families, and staff about the arts as they were very interested. I had a life-threatening illness as a child, and although it wasn't cancer I knew what those children and families needed from me, besides murals. They needed genuine light-hearted smiles, healthy distraction, and acknowledgment. One thing I became known for was, of all things, my sneakers. Each Monday I'd go in with a new paint job on my sneakers. I'd create a whole new design on them. From polkadots, to zebra pattern , to gold toed sparkles, to two different color sneakers like purple and blue. Each Monday they'd waited to see what the big reveal would be.
Sadly, I was missing huge milestones with my son. First steps, first words, it was more than I could bare, and so I made one of the toughest decisions of my life... to stop working at my dream job. Years later I realized, looking back at the work I had done there, that when the doctors medicine didn't work, the mural medicine worked until near the very end for those children who succumbed to their battle. You see, the purpose of those murals was what is referred to as escapism. It took those kids and their families, and also the staff, outside the walls of their reality to a place they dreamed of or hoped for or just liked to imagine.
When our family moved to a larger house, there, I painted nearly all the walls top to bottom with murals. Images of pacific islanders, like the giant rendition painting in our den of Gauguin's La Orana Maria, reminding me of where I wanted to be, Maui Hawai`i. I eventually shifted into doing smaller solo commissioned projects that fit my family's schedule and needs. One of those was a large commissioned mural at my son's elementary school in Olive Branch that's still there after fifteen years!
In 2009, my son and husband and I finally made the big move to Maui. We were divorced a year after our arrival and I spent the next nine years as a single mom on Maui. If you read around the site here, you'll learn about how I spent that precious time, medically, educationally, culturally and vocationally. Now, having come full circle, I returned with my son to the mainland last year. Medical illness took me off the island for good. However, I have been able to recieve the treatment I need here in Tennessee and it looks like I'm going to be here a while, here as in alive . Life is so unexpected. I wasn't prepared for the illness, and didnt' feel prepared for healing from the illness after coming so close to losing my life. Having gone through all that, it's shifted my perspective and priorities. I graduated with a B.A. in psychology in 2019, and am interested in art therapy. Until I am ready to apply for my masters, I am taking time to come back full throttle with a new lease on life.
Muralists and kids working together at K.I.R.C. in the morning Maui sun. kahoolawe-mural-art-program
Kihei Charter Elementary with muralists/mentors at K.I.R.C. Boat Yard, Kihei, Maui on Day 1 of mural
The Commission that permitted the mural was specific about it being painted in "block" simple style to blend in with Maui's natural environment
Exceptional work from Kihei Charter Elementary for bringing awareness to a critical cause in the Hawaiian Islands.
Different than what the commission wanted, it was still important to reflect the mission of K.I.R.C. to youth who were learning about restoration and history.
Day three of mural making with the mentoring muralists and youth from Kihei Charter Elementary for K.I.R.C.
A mural mentor group project for Buddhist Learning Center in Maui, Hawai`i. Members placed sticker lettering on it after completion to reflect their philosophy, upcoming goals and events. It is one of two mural projects I helped lead for a youth mentoring program.. The other mural is on the second floor of the center and covers and entire wall top to bottom. It was a much longer, evolving project.
Matisse's The Red Table rendition mural
Bamboo detail of a mural in the nursery I painted at Neshoba Unitarian Universalist Church in Cordova, Tennessee.
Detail of a private mural for a girls' bedroom. She picked out the images she wanted on her walls.
Priced by size, location, difficulty, and quality of paint preferred by each client, mural prices are comparative with home and office painting estimates. For example, a mural painted on a ceiling is more costly than one applied to a kitchen wall. Many rendition, graphic design, cultural, thematic, and children's murals are competitively priced.
We love to collaborate with people and help them see their visions come to life. Interested in group or beautification projects? Our muralists are trained to work with groups and mentoring programs and will guide the novice through the process of designing and painting meaningful murals.