Genoa - Kingston Middle School Mural

My first mural! I was teaching a painting class when one of my students asked me if I painted murals. I said, "no, but I could." And next thing I knew, I had the job. The first day was full of failures as there were so many things I was not prepared for when changing, scale, size, materials, settings, mediums, etc. 

Thankfully (and luckily) my dad was a house painter for over 50 years before he retired, and came to fix everything I had done wrong. Ex: using an oil based crayon to draw my design before realizing that water based latex paint would NEVER cover it. 

With catastrophes behind us, I got to work. The school had given me a budget and we agreed that I would paint until that budget ran out. I was so excited to find myself with 10 hours of time left, and was able to add so many fun little details to this piece. I included an easter egg for each of the schools clubs and teams, and made it a fun game for the students to be able to find "their" spot on the wall. 

I spent most of my time here completely overwhelmed, not to mention hot and sweaty as there was no air conditioning in the building and this was mid july - mid august. When it was over, I never wanted to see it again, just like the rest of my artwork. But as a little time has passed, I Iove looking at it and seeing how much the community loves it. The Genoa-Kingston mascot is a COG - my idea was to showcase how it takes several cogs working together to make a machine run smoothly. I, and the employees and students at the school, were very happy with the outcome!