nebula

This whole mural project has been such a dream! Our local bike alliance coordinated and organized it in conjunction with a local muralist. The vision: a group of 20 artists each paints a panel representing an area along the bike path that goes from St George Utah to Zion National Park. They held juried applications to select artists, and each panel came with a specific sponsor.

I had never done a mural before applying to be on the project and tbh didn’t expect to be selected based on that! It’s made this experience even more special - and I’m very grateful to have had such a well supported first effort. The bike alliance got approval from the city and supplied all the paint and also optionally other supplies as well (I opted to use my own brushes). They also prepped the wall (grinding, wire removal, bunch of other rough on the hands work) and primed it for us.

I got to borrow a Meta Quest 3 VR headset to use to map the design I drew onto the wall and made stenciling a piece of cake. I literally thought it was going to be the worst part, but it only took about 20 min.

I just had so much fun getting to know the other artists, getting to paint in such a collaborative setting, and both getting out of my comfort zone a bit and realizing that I really loved it.

I would really really love to do some more murals, though it’s def HARD work, especially since we got hit with high temps early this year. I painted all day Sat and Sun, and it was in the 90s (Fahrenheit) both days. A lot of the other artists had bog pop up tents that I was very jealous of with their full shade lol. I did get my beach umbrella set up at one point and it helped for a little but offered very little shade and wasn’t worth moving around constantly so I didn’t even bother with that on Sunday. I really want to save up for a Meta Quest 3 now. I wish they weren’t so expensive but really such a game changer for stenciling the mural onto the wall and I’d love to use it for sewing patterns and even just canvases for paintings at home. I’ve never really been interested in any of the VR games or owning any of the sets before but ahhh!! As an art tool??? Amazing!

So lots of hydrating, sunscreen, and paint later - I’ve got my first public mural done (did one in my house a few weeks ahead of the mural painting day), I’ve made a lot of great local creative connections and I think at least a couple friends, and made something I’m proud of that may or may not help me find more rad opportunities.

Yay!