Artsy Fartsy

Before I discovered my love of fashion, I was an artist. I have been painting, drawing and simply creating since I was a toddler. Usually I only created for personal reasons, but back in 2009, I has the opportunity to paint my first mural. The junior high I attended asked me to paint a nutrition inspired mural for their cafeteria.  At the time, I had never done something of that magnitude; the wall was over 16 feet tall and 22 ft. wide. I summoned my Dad to help me take on this huge project. The hilarious thing about all of it, is  that the wall I was painting, contained a mural my Father had painted when I was in 6th grade! I was very amused they unknowingly called me to cover up one of my Father's originals!! (I'm glad he wasn't upset).

The only guideline the school gave me for the mural was, that it has to be based on nutrition. Being, that my style of art is impressionistic, I immediately thought of something I could see in a coffee house. I do not paint in a realistic style and I did not want my mural to be straight forward. I came up with the concept by playing with the  food pyramid. I decided to take the triangle theme and instead of creating a vertical food pyramid, I made a horizontal one. I had a blast painting this and it was even better that I got to share the experience with my dad! After it was all said and done (only 6 days later) I loved it, the administrators loved it, and best of all the kids thought I was pretty cool!

The old Mural. My Dad painted this for Character Counts in 1996. You can see, it was falling apart.

Laying out the new design

Barefoot and painting, that's how I roll :D Note: these are not style photos! I was a hot, dirty, sweaty mess!!

My "cheeser" face

Shading my corn on the cob

Adding a really cool quote I found, "To Eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an Art"

Almost Done....

Adding a border was the perfect finish!