Last week I finally painted my first mural. Since it wasn’t a commission I could pretty much do anything I wanted. The freedom and excitement you feel as an artist is doubled when opportunities like this come along, and I could not wait to throw myself into it. I found It was not as easy as I originally thought it would be. What started off as a freestyle chance to splash some paint on a wall soon turned into my next big venture into installation and site specific painting. Wow...but where do you start and how do you translate a space into a painting? Working on this mural was really eye opening. It was no longer just a flat surface. There were obstacles - outlets, pre-existing texture, hight and an unfriendly base color. Instead of working around these moments I wanted to include them in my composition. Ultimately, these elements translate a sense of energy that the space embodied. With repect to concept and composition, I wanted my mural to be playful, happy and easy to read. Complex mixtures can seem confusing and heavy . I wanted to keep it clean, flat, almost like paper cut-outs overlaying each other. While working on this piece, I thought about the energy constantly pulsing through the city and the its various pattern therein. Toronto can feels like a collage of shapes, hemmed in by highways and rivers. The mural reflects this concept. Murals can have a powerful effect on a viewer. They invite you the guests to stay a little longer and appreciate the space. I kept that in mind and tried to think objectively.
After I completed the mural, I was really concerned about how I was going to go back to my regular practice of working on paper. I realize now that there are challenges with both and the fundamental idea in both is to activate a flat surface and bring a sense of life to it. What I love about my art practice is that it never ends and there is a constant sense of surprise and discovery. I never know what is next and every piece holds a chance to learn something new. Nothing is too precious and fortunate accidents help me to refine my technique further.
