all in a day's work...

tree!
today was tree day.
i managed to get quite a bit done (tree-wise), which might not look like much, but its the tippity top of the building, so that alone is impressive and the pictures don't really do the color shifts justice. (my own horn: toot toot).

if you're a process type person...

i've gotten a lot of emails, in the last week, asking about the process of painting a mural; where do you start? how do you make something so small into something so big? what kind of paint do you use? where do you pee?

all valid questions.
1.) you start with priming
2.) photoshop helps for scaling the image; bricks help for figuring our placement; and experience tells me the middle is usually the safest place to start a sketch-- you can adjust as you go along.
3.) i use Benjamin Moore, all weather-exterior latex paint
4.) i try not to drink anything until i'm super thirsty, then i just take baby sips and mid-day, i'll hop in the car and go to the supermarket nearby, so i don't have to go back home and get Mason stirred up again when i leave.

Some of you have been more interested in the physical changes one can watch as a mural unfolds, so for those of you, here is a visual journal of the process:


wall as i found it.


end of day 1 (priming)


end of day 2 (priming)


end of day 3 (base color)


end of day 4 (blocking in color)



sometime in the future (this is a handy photoshop projection of what we can expect)

and still others of you prefer a more anecdotal approach to the process--- you want to know feeling, see images that provide a sense of being there and such. ok, here you go:

here's my feet the first day i climbed up to the top of the 3 story scaffolding. what you can't see in the picture is how terribly my hands were trembling. they were. bad. very bad.


when i look around, i see this. and i am scared.


when i am sitting, i see this. SITTING. i see the top of a house. when i'm sitting. do you get that? sitting.


here's what the top of the building looked like after i lamaze-d my way through painting it. now that i see it, i kinda really hate that color, which means my desire to be perfect is going to override the mantra i chanted that day ("i'm not coming back up here. i'm not coming back up here")


aack!


but, i am fine. and i feel stronger for it. look at me go! i conquered! i win! i am the best! and i have to go back up there!


on that note, i have a lot of brushes to clean, and a lot of advil to take; my right hand is very, very sore. i am feeling, er...is it considered laziness if you've been quite busy otherwise? i don't feel like doing anything right now, but am guessing that that is ok, since i've been essentially LIVING on a scaffold for a week (when i haven't been teaching people to draw or reminding 10 years to put their cell phones away). so, i'm going to go do those things--- bright and early tomorrow i'll be back on the scaffold and at some point this week, i'll muster up the energy to share some exciting personal news (but for now... advil. lots and lots of advil).
xoxo, danamarie

Accidental art...

The history of one part of the wall and the present of another part of the wall, make nice in the paint tray.

These are AJ's favorite colors (in combination), so the accident makes me extra happy.

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Morning fuel...

In our house growing up, my dad was synonimous with dunkin donuts. The coffee cup logo was part of his trademarked image. The biggest priviledge you could have was being asked to go on a donut run-- and if you were extra lucky, YOU got to participate in the curating of the box of a dozen.

Toasted coconut. That was my contribution. Always.

It was the coffee part I didn't get. He didn't even put sugar in it. (and in Miami, you get at least a dozen packets of sugar thrown in your bag even when you say "no sugar").

Well, I was up at 6:30 this morning. Every single part of me aches. I am on my way to home depot, praying there is a such thing as a padded handled roller.

And, yeah, I totally "get" coffee today.
(I also "got" a donut-- double chocolate, for my dad)

Xo, danamarie
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Hello from here...

Blisters & backaches & bruises, oh my!

Just checking in... I have class til late tonight, so the big reveal will have to wait. Its coming along though!

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today in the studio...

why not be a knitimal today, too?

A good night's sleep...

You know how you can just be cruisin' along, feeling good, everything's making sense and then one morning you wake up to a big ol tangle-y ball of mess? Its nothing big; nothing painful or deadly, just way too much grown up junk for one day.
That's pretty much how I've woken up everyday this past week.
The mural wall is sucking up primer like crazy* the car has a rail road spike in the tire* 2 trips to the dealership* crappy health insurance* crappy management company suddenly dumping a "you need to sign a year lease" letter on us, even though we've been month-to-month for 8 years under the management of the actual building owner, meanwhile, said management company has been thoroughly useless in helping with Smokey McHacking-Cough (our few months new downstairs neighbor. Also known as the reason our house smells like a casino. Also known as the reason I can't breathe in my own apartment.). *oh yeah, and they're raising the rent too* I was "going" to write them a letter to point out how they were in breach of contract, second hand smoke laws, Dr's notes etc... They beat me to it with this; I complain and have to leave, it seems* so? Do we move? I don't really want to pack. Rent is cheap. Is it worth the annoyance of the smoke and letting them "win"? Can I get a day off to decide!?!*

Nope.
It doesn't work that way, right?
So, I'm putting on my beamiest, Henson-iest face, and taking this one problem at a time.

Starting with sleep.

Here's to a better week for all!
Xoxo, danamarie
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Flat tires make dachshunds sad...

Humans who need to paint murals too.
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out of the bag, onto the wall...

so, it's out of the bag... i'm painting on walls again.


look familiar?

well, the mural "that never was" is now the mural that IS.
(except, it'll be the mirror image version).

after all the hubbub and hooplah, crying and complaining, the mural that never was found its new home... a happy home... a home that genuinely WANTS it.

starting yesterday morning, the wall on the side of the home at 539 E. 21st street, became the official home of the mural entitled "our roots, our community". the wall is over 50 feet wide and over 30 feet tall. and that's REALLY tall. trust me.. i have pictures to prove it.


the process will be a relatively slow one--- since the wall is so big and made of some sort of incredibly flakey, crumbly non-brick brick, the primer (which you see here) is very crucial... and is being absorbed by the devil-brick at record pace. it took me about 4 hours yesterday to protect the lower half of the wall with butcher paper and drop cloths and to mask off the corners (no one likes a messy mural), and then to apply primer to the bottom 3 levels of the two right side panels. 4 hours later, i had blisters on both hands and a raging need to...er, well, i'd consumed a lot of water.


today, i got the left side panel primed (a slightly harder task, due to the super bumpy nature of that side of the wall, the spiky sawgrass plant that wants to cover me in tiny cuts... and was successful... and the fact that the scaffolding ends about two feet too soon... looks like i'll be doing a lot of stretching on this one!). the weather is PERFECT for painting. i'm hoping it holds. sadly, i had to cut short today's painting love, because Edison drove over a nail at some point and his back right tire has been leaking air for, oh, weeks. So, today was the day we took advantage of his warranty and got him some new rolling shoes.

anyway, back to the mural...

it's very exciting to have this opportunity. i felt/ feel so strongly about this image and was so sad to hear it wouldn't have a wall to live on. But, as i believe and as so many of you shared, everything really DOES happen for a reason. And i think in this case, the reason is the beautiful community of the Greenmount/Boone Avenue on E. 21st. EVERY single person i met yesterday was so sweet, so kind, so gracious--- so enthusiastic and supportive. It's the first mural i've ever worked on where from day one you could literally see people coming out to embrace THEIR art. And that's why i love doing this--- art for others.

Now, i'd be remiss (and i'd be withholding information from you) if i didn't share this with you...

I'm scared to death of the top top top of the scaffolding.
scared.

to

death.

it doesn't SEEM that high, and really, its not all that high. I mean, it's less than 6 of me tall, right? but before i left yesterday, i climbed up there just to do it once and sort of "conquer" it. well, im not sure conquering is what happened. i mean, i came back down, which, really, is job one. But i was knock-kneed and shivery the whole time, barely looked around and could hardly imagine actually PAINTING up there. Alas... i have not much of a choice. I have to look at the design now that i have actual measurements for the wall, but i'm thinking the top level of scaffolding will only cover the tree area, which should make things easier (theoretically "less work" in just painting foliage). I'm also thinking i should go ahead and start at the top. I dont usually, but...

it's only going to get colder and windier and i think i'm thinking getting it "over with" would be a smart way to go. plus, you tend to get tired the longer you work on a mural and i think that in a month when i'm trying to finish this up, i'd rather be tired on the first or 2nd level of scaffolding than on the 6th, yeah?

so,
this is the view from up there. ok, maybe that doesn't quite show it.
how about this?

i can see the city... and the top of the roof! i could SIT on the roof (except there's a good 18" between the wall and the scaffold, and that's too much for me).


wish me luck.
wish me balance!!!

I should be painting every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday for the next few weeks. If you happen to be in the area, stop by and say hi!~
xo, danamarie

Slowly but surely...

image/jpeg
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