This mural is approximately 10 feet wide and was created for The Center for Creativity at the Rialto in Westfield. It is a play on spilling coffee but the swirls also have “creative” pursuits worked into them. The idea for this mural came from the notion that coffee is fuel for the day and so should we get a daily dose of creativity to enrich our lives also. I wanted the mural to be colorful (everyone knows how I feel about color) and interactive.
This project was my first mural painted directly onto a brick wall and it was not easy. The building is well over 100 years old and the mortar and bricks were not smooth or completely intact or flat! There were numerous holes in the wall and in lot of places I found myself sticking the brush full of paint into a hole to color up the inside so it would be less noticeable. I started with a projector, to get my images onto the wall. The swirly detail was not something I felt I could draw by hand, mostly because there were so many. I soon realized that I did not have enough room to project the image as large as I had planned. I figured out that by splitting my image in two parts I could marry them together on the wall. That comes with a whole new set of complications, like how to match up the images so they appear seamless, but in the end I was able to make the image large enough for the space. After applying primer, I was able to project my image again (in two parts) and draw in the numerous swirls and other details. The project from design to completion took about 40 hours.I used outdoor latex paint and primer.
The mural is located in the walkway on the Rialto building wall in Westfield, NJ along with some other wonderful mural pieces for everyone to enjoy. Thanks to my daughter Emory, for the “Insta modeling”.
I promise not to bombard you and only to tell you about good things when they happen.