As you may have noticed, I’ve been busy painting copious amounts of small paintings. This size has found a niche following and we can’t seem to keep enough of them on hand. They fit my characters well, they’re easy to find a spot for, and the price is right. (There are a handful available in the shop right now. Get ‘em while you can!)
At the same time, as I’ve been cranking away at small objects of art, we made a BIG art move with big brushes this past April. We painted a mural, but not just any mural…our first indoor mural! A mural that allowed us to try a technique we’d been brainstorming for a while.
As many of our friends headed to warmer, sunnier climes for spring break, our family headed north with a car packed to the brim with paint cans, brushes, and supplies. We had been planning for months with a collector to paint an indoor mural in their condo and it was time to put the plan into action.
Our primary plan: paint a towering Wing Walker and her pilot on a spacious wall over which faces a beautiful Lake Superior harbor. Our secondary plan: DO NOT spill a giant bucket or even one drop of paint the floor and decor of this well-appointed condo. DO NOT BE MESSY.
Seven hours and a massive suspension bridge later, we were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which oddly feels like we stole it from Wisconsin or Canada. The UP, as it’s colloquially called, is a vast resource of wild land, dense forests, and rocky outcroppings. Hidden among this rugged and beautiful landscape are mineral deposits and from one such vein sprang Marquette, a lumber and iron mining port in a scenic crook of Lake Superior.
Towering over the harbor is a silent watchman: the Marquette Lower Harbor Ore Dock. This brick and steel monolith was once used to load freighters with iron ore and send them on their way to the steel mills of the Great Lakes region. It is one of the coolest industrial structures I’ve ever seen. There’s even a companion ore dock in the upper harbor of Marquette that is still in use. We got to witness the slow approach of a huge ship in the misty morning as it docked. This was just after a lively, snow-covered Easter egg hunt that the boys took part in. What a life.
The boys on the pier with the ore dock and perfectly placed sailboat in the background.
Big barge approaching in the mist.
Ready to hunt.
Hunting.
The hunt haul.
The condo was gorgeous. The large bay windows overlooked, what else, the bay and after arriving we took a minute to take in the view before turning around and facing the 20’ blank canvas that was to be transformed in the coming days. It’s moments like this that I think to myself, “How in the world did we get here?” and then, “God is good.”
The condo with gorgeous views of the bay and ore dock.
The wall.
Being our first indoor mural this commission gave us the chance to try out my collage process on a wall. I’ve done it hundreds of times on my paintings, but paper and weather don’t mix so we’ve never found a way to incorporate it into our mural projects. This was our chance. After testing out the planned process on the walls of my studio, the stage was set for us to add this subtle but powerful bit of dimension to the wall of this lovely room.
The mock up.
Ashley and I got right to work, draping drop cloths on every surface nearby and instructing the boys not to break anything expensive. They got to work racing the hallways while we got our color samples out to see how they matched the space.
Painting begins.
No bucket trucks were allowed in the condo so we were relegated to a lot of ladder climbing. Luckily I like heights (is that a surprise?) and Ashley and Ivan were excellent at holding the ladder steady while I did my thing above while Orin provided color commentary. Ashley and I worked through the painting of the mural taking breaks to explore the area a bit. The boys played video games and climbed ladders that weren’t in use. We didn’t have any spills of paint, other than a brush I dropped from high up that miraculously landed in a bucket of water. Thank you Jesus.
Lookin’ gooood.
The collage process worked out really well and it was funny to handle a large, collaged Wing Walker lady that was taller than Orin. This tedious step was well worth it in the end, as it really makes the figures pop and give the overall mural a wonderful subtle dimension. It worked as planned! How about that.
Making the giant lady wing walker figure.
She creeped Ivan out a little bit.
Helping.
We coated and varnished the mural and then headed outside in the sunny 37-degree weather for an icy plunge in Lake Superior, just like the locals. If you saw the video on Patreon, you’ll know that it was brief, Ashley screamed bloody murder and told the boys “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”, Ivan was well on his way until he got to his boy bits and Orin decided on a decisive dip of his feet before seeking out a towel. It was hilarious and chaotic and a perfect vignette of how our family makes memories.
It looks amazing in that space.
Happy to be done. A little sad to be leaving such a beautiful area.
We took an extra day to get a couple more hikes in before hitting the road back to ‘down state’, as the local yoopers say, and to more populated locales. The route skirts Lake Michigan as you approach the Mackinac Bridge and the water was unbelievable shades of vibrant blues and greens. The beauty of our state will stop you in its tracks and was in full force on that drive back home.
Hiking to get their energy out and for us to decompress.
I’m sure he’s looking for frogs. He’s always looking for frogs.
Beautiful views of Lake Superior at the top.
Overall, the mural went very well due mainly to our preparations beforehand. We were delighted by how readily an indoor mural transformed a space and our minds have started to explore the possibilities ahead. We should, of course, paint one in our living room and indoor commercial spaces could be a huge opportunity as well.
We’ve got a lot of Michigan art shows slated for the coming months, as there’s nowhere else we’d rather be. Check out our calendar and swing on by the booth to say howdy, check out my latest little creations, and scheme with us about the next big art moves on the horizon.