Art show #2 - paper is just too small.

Oh yeah!! let me paint your house! For a very brief time I got to be a mural painter. The pictures don't do them justice and these are huge! Like had to stand on a chair to paint most of them.

(Clicking on them will enlarge them)

 From a Russian fairy tale.

 Original design snow unicorn. That frosty breath was actually discovered an accident. I touched the wall with my paint brush on the Pegasus mural and as I wiped it off it looked like mist. So I used that technique here.

 It looks so small in these bad pictures. That is an ENTIRE wall of the dining room. My head at 5' 6" is even with the horses chest.

 My favorite project! I had a whole pool house to decorate. One of the farm sisters accidently ran into it. Each mural is a full sheet of plywood.

 Pool house mural, Chinese Luck dragon. Looooooooved that fire. I should have taken a close up of the pearl in his claws. it's reflecting the water/fire.

 same side as dragon.

 The other wall in the dining room. Life size. Pegasus. It scared the poo out of more then once! It is opposite a window, and when the moon was bright you would wander down stairs and see the ghostly reflection of this life sized Pegasus in the window, looking like it was out in the garden!

 More pool house

 Snow unicorn moon.

Under the snow unicorn mural is a under sea mural. I don't have any pictures of it. It's only claim to fame was the moray eel in the cave.  Painted it then waited 30 second and wiped it off and whalaa! sinister shadowy grinning eel that looked it was just catching enough sea light to hint at it being there.
It disturbed the farm kids so I eventually replaced it with the snow unicorn.

 Shows the deep blue color it actually was. Loved that color!!

 ack, what a waste. Long before digital photography. There was no retakes. Film/developing was spendy for me. On the end of her sea snake "wand" is another luck pearl

 The last mural I ever painted. There is a suppose to be a cat on the floor pulling the curtain tie. This was in the CPS building in one of there therapy rooms. On the last day of painting I was in a very depressed state. I showed up and as the bitch lady walked me to the room she snipped, "your not going to paint any more pink are you? everyone hates it."

I was already vulnerable at that point and her words just sliced me all to hell. I snapped the picture, erased the cat outline, repainted the curtains a light brown and left angry and in tears.

LISTEN you Bitch. This room is used for therapy of CHILDREN! I should have been getting help in this room rather then cutting and burning he crap out of my self. PINK IS A OFTENED USED THERAPY COLOR BECAUSE ITS SOOTHING. THIS ISN'T SOME SHIT I AM MAKING UP. THAT IS WHY I CHOSE THAT COLOR.

google it you monster! "Healing properties of pink: Heals grief and sadness. Restores youthfulness. Brings you in contact with your feelings."

oh wait there wasn't google at the time. She is one person I would like to go back into time and retroactively smack the crap outta. Frightens me she worked daily with vulnerable children...AND NEW ALL THE MURALIST ON THIS PROJECT WERE ABUSE SURVIORS.

bleah. capped my paint cans and never painted again.

To not end on a ugly note lets talk about Berigetzina' Temhota'

I got to paint the dining room at my work. It was a 38 bed locked Alzheimer's unit. It was so much fun.

I painted at night. Some times alone, and sometime with a resident or two watching.

I owe my sister a debt of gratitude. As I embarked my first night to paint she quipped, " you remember that it shades dark to light?"

I rolled my eyes, "of course."

When in reality if she hadn't said that I'm not sure the sky would have faded in the right direction or at all! LOL.

Fun, except for the leaves....gaaahhh! those were a pain in the arse! they wouldn't dry quickly in the chilly night air. Forcing multiple trips to get them done.

This gives a better idea of the size.

Several other people painted murals up and down the hallways. They painted animals and people. The residents rubbed and scratched the eyes off all the murals and defaced them occasionally with poop. I take it as quite a compliment that my art work existed unmolested for years before it was repainted.

This was also my first encounter with the ghostly window reflection of my work. As I neared completion a resident came down and opened the blinds of the window across from the main mural.

I set up my camera to take a self portrait  (takes out my teeth, "You whipped snappers, that's what selfies were called back in my day")

and as I crouched to fit in to the picture I looked past to the camera to see the mural reflection and the resulting picture is a classic. The look of stunned amazement at the ghostly refection of the mural and me, with the sun behind me making a halo.

I have a few mural ideas I sketch but never painted.

A mostly fun chapter in my life.