A visit through my mural photo album

While cleaning up a bit in the studio, I came across my old photo album of murals and painted furniture. I'd forgotten I had it and enjoyed looking back over the years as I flipped through it.

Which is why we do scrap books and albums right?

I apologize for the blurriness of most of these pics, they are photographed through the plastic covers on the pages.

And taking a photo of a picture isn't always the best (or smartest) way to do a blog post, huh?  

But please forgive me as I indulge myself in showing some of these old pics.  They were glued down, and if I had to remove and scan each one, it wouldn't have happened.

So, instead, you get a quick and crappy trip down memory lane with me and my smeary pictures.

Some are from antique mall booths, and of painted furniture.

This is from a baby's room.

This as well.

And here is a master bedroom  painted a deep color that I was asked to paint blooming flowers all the way around the baseboards.

The iris "bloomed" all around the room.

This was for a boy's room, with all walls done in a planetary theme.

His sister's room got dolphins.

Extra blurriness for this one, it is in a dining room and is part of a scene that filled all four walls.

I can't even remember painting this one.  

But back in the day, I did do a lot of pets on walls. Often, the furry little guys would pose for me in person.

This is a Velveteen Rabbit scene for a niece.

And some frogs for another little girl who had actually saved up her own money to hire an artist to come and paint her bedroom. She loved frogs.

 

I painted this landscape in my mud room, hated it, and painted over it.  My home is layers upon layers of painted over murals.  My son's rooms changed every couple of years as they were growing up.

A friend had me do this for her, and the best part was hanging out and laughing together as I did the work.

I did public spaces too.  Here is a basement laundry room at an apartment building near the KU campus.

And a bar in Louisiana. This was huge, the whole thing was 20×60'

The sunset was done with spray paint.  I'm trying to remember why there was a desert in Louisiana, but I just can't. It was a cowboy bar, and the guy roping the moon was the logo.

The little guy in the beer bottle was the logo for another bar, and I painted a wall of him in various poses all over the place. A larger version of him is holding the bottle. It was like a big, drunken hallucination and was such fun to come up with.

I painted this restaurant wall to brighten up a narrow space. (I did the faux finish too)

And I was hired to paint tropical plants at a country club in Florida. 

Funny, years and years later, my husband is working for this company now and is actually a VP.  He wouldn't ever have hired me, that would've been nepotism, so I'm glad he got the job later on. This was one of the most fun paintings I've done, I had a week to stay at their private hotel at the club, order room service, and sit by the pool contemplating what to paint next.  I had free reign in the dining room and snack bar to create on the walls. 

Guncle Randy always gave me free space to decorate his walls too.  Everytime I visited we would paint together and add more to his art room.

I was lucky enough to get to do some Design Showhouses too.  This was in a music room of a very old, wonderful home. The walls are bronze, gold, and copper. The piano bench is covered in sheet music and is used in front of the bench my son built and that I now have in my studio. 

 

Some of these, I really enjoyed seeing again, others are slightly cringe-worthy.  I always painted fast, most walls were done in less than a day, and at the time, I kept pretty busy with daycares, hotels, and so many other spaces. It makes me a bit sad that digital cameras weren't around and I don't have better photos of most of the work.  Painting murals was quite an interesting job and I got to travel, experiment, and really loved the work.