illustrative
TRADITIONAL COMPOSITION
A SETTING & A SUBJECT
PAINTERLY, RENDERED, DETAILED
These clients wanted a cover-up for the graffiti on the side of their home, and requested an unusually delightful range of subject ideas: Tulips, daffodils, red poppies, snapdragons. Frogs, dragons, lizards, bugs, mosquitos, bees, beetles, lightning bugs. (No monkeys! No snakes! No birds!)
Following the trail of the dragon, I learned that Sabrina’s father had told her stories of Springdale the Dragon while she was growing up. He ate tulips (red to breathe fire, purple otherwise) and lived in a windmill and was friends with the three Watchfrogs.
This design pays homage to those stories in a playful surprise for the many folks who stroll through this alley to get to the nearby market or walk their kids around the block to the park. Springdale dreams of critters and flowers curling through his smokey breath.
The street art festival is my favorite event in Richmond hands down. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to paint in such an iconic place with so many iconic artists! This one is open to your interpretation, and I'd love to hear your take on it, or just hear you take a big breath ;)
Thanks to my wall neighbors Chris Visions and Sean McClintock and to my whole famdamly for showing up to say hi. Also big thanks to Zammuto for writing a song that kept me company and helped me and my friends laugh during some of the most baffling moments of 2020. It Can Feel So Good is a banger forever.
The fire is from a photograph of a wildfire that started in a national park in Tennessee near Chattanooga and Dollywood in 2016, and was the most fatal fire on this side of the country.
An unconventional portrait of Richmond, viewed from within. Painted in a historic residence, built 1892.
On my grandfather's shed, I painted a collage of important icons: the Pennsylvania Railroad, the beautiful rolling countryside, and a ruby-throated hummingbird.
The Shugars’ are connoisseurs of Art Deco, particularly of Art Deco-era automobiles. Their beautiful home is filled with tastefully curated artwork and custom furnishings befitting those themes. Their garage is filled with two sporty cars, one a handsome restoration project and one a speedy and well-outfitted toy. And the back of their garage, the only part of their home visible from the alley.... was beige. Unacceptable.
A car was the obvious solution; an Art Deco car even more so. I worked with them to delve into a vast expanse of visual reference material, choosing an aesthetic and a specific vehicle to work from. The details of the car and the luxury of the driver were key for them, so we reached a design that cut away any other distractions.
Now when you drive down the Floyd-Ellwood alley, perhaps on your way to the Belmont Library or the pocket park hidden deeper in, you'll get a peek of what it looks like to love a car.
Halcyon Vintage is a vintage clothing shop established in 1983 by the lovely Connie Carroll. It's a staple of the Robinson St / Main St shopping area, and (I'm told by experts) a real hidden treasure for those interested in authentic vintage apparel.
For years the alley-side of the shop has been distinguished by a wooden sign by Billy Pickett, a veteran Richmond sign-painter. As with any wooden sign though, this one finally bit the dust earlier this year and Connie decided to replace it directly on the wall itself.
I worked with Connie to design a mural based off of the original design, which is an illustration of the myth of Alcyone. The new version has several subtle symbols representing Connie's two homes of Virginia and Maine: for example, the tree is a portrait of a specific tree on the James near Pony Pasture, and the rocks are based off of the Maine coastline.
Chesapeake Bank commissioned this mural to beautify the construction site for their first Richmond branch. Designed specifically for the site, the mural runs the full length of the block, capping the corners with detailed portraits of iconic local buildings and sights.
To create these portraits, I started by walking around to many local businesses in the Westhampton shopping area (Grove Ave, Libbie Rd, Patterson Ave) and asking people what they thought of as iconic to their community - which people, buildings, fixtures, events, and etc characterize the area? Many people were somewhat bemused - though they'd lived and worked in the area for a long time, they didn't see their surroundings as "iconic". Nevertheless I ended up with a long list of businesses that had been there for 20, 30, and 40 years, repeated imagery like the streetlights, and groups of people like joggers and shoppers. (Many subjects were mentioned over and over by those same bemused people - hopefully these images act as a mirror for them to see the lovely character of their neighborhood!)
More details below about different parts of the installation.
Kosovo is a young country with a long history, and its identity is in the hands of today's young people.
The locations depicted are scenes from my introduction to Ferizaj, where the city streets are busy and close, and the consistent background of the mountains is revealed between buildings. The blank wall at the center is a message of possibility to the students in the university who will see this in class.
This is the first indoor wall to be part of this program, located at the University of Applied Sciences in Ferizaj. I was blown away by the amazing program of MuralFest Kosova and how much this team has positively impacted their city, not just during a summer art festival but year-round, for seven years. My hope is that this mural can symbolize the impact they have had, and hold it up as an example for how to involve oneself in the work being done to build the future of your home.