Makewells

Back to Lettering (for now?)

Well, I'm back in my little studio this week with lot's of lettering to do. I missed this little room, with my jars of pens, boxes of papergoods, and piles of random stuff you normally find in an artist's studio (deer antlers in the corner, notes to myself scribbled in a fury to remember ideas, you know all that good stuff...). 

Before the mural got underway, I was in the midst of a few lettering projects and I'm excited to share some pieces I did for the newly married Julie Saunders. She worked with the talented Courtney Jentzen of Swiss Cottage Designs for her invitation suite. And it was so so so lovely. My favorite part were the envelope liners...so cute! I was excited to help make these invitations extra special for Julie and Ryan's guests to receive by hand addressing her envelopes. 

Courtney did so amazing with the invites, didn't she? 

Some other elements I helped Julie with were her menu and escort cards. (Photos by SarahTuckerEvents.) Julie sprayed these cute little sea creatures gold for each of the cards to be attached to. Love!

Ok, back to work - happy Wednesday!

 

 

Mural: Days 3 - 9

Well, it's been quite the week (and a half). I wanted to post more often, but as you can imagine I've been a bit busy and pretty tired when I get home each evening. 

Each day has presented new challenges and new opportunities to trust God to help me problem solve! 

Here is a summary of what days 3 through 9 of mural painting had in store:

Day 3

A beautiful day - Good Friday. Unfortunately I realized that my gridding was the slightest bit off this day - making it very difficult to keep a paintbrush that will eventually be 40 feet long from looking "wonky". As I used to tell my students, "When in doubt, grid it out". This, for me, entailed making 2 1/2 foot boxes instead of 5.

I've attached an image of how I've been mapping this out, because a lot of people are curious how I'm keeping things in proportion:

Every 2 inches on my original drawing equals 10 feet on the wall. I then break those boxes down - so essentially every 1/2 inch equals 2 1/2 feet. Once I draw the grid on the wall, I sketch in the lines and then paint. As you can see, that means the dogwood on the far right is approximately 17 feet tall. (holy cow)

Day 4 

My super supportive and encouraging husband came out on day 4 to help me get the brush right. Once we made our gridding system smaller, it was a piece of cake! This was a total answer to prayer as we'd asked God specifically that day to help us problem solve. 

We ended up having a really fun day working together - stressful at times, but so exciting to see it come together! We were pumped at the end of the day - and ready for a day off to celebrate Easter!

Day 5

I really started to get in a groove by day 5 of painting. As you can see, the dancer has appeared! The window provided a bit of a challenge - but not as bad as I thought. It was a good day painting!

Day 6

Hoorah for a day painting flowers! I was looking forward to this day - and finally remembered to bring along my ipod. I painted dogwoods and jammed out to music all day. 

The detail shows you the bricks I'm dealing with - this is a very old building, and some of those bricks stick out or recess a lot! Just another challenge...

Day 7

Finally, the paint brush has some bristles. This was Wednesday (April 3rd). The next day it was cold and actually ended up snowing...so I took that day off. I did get a call to come down and be on the news again though - at least this time I had on some makeup. But still - so awkward for me. 

Day 8

And now he's not dancing alone anymore. Again, the window here was a challenge. We thought about painting the window, but I decided that might make them look awkward so once I stepped back and was happy I moved on. 

This day was the toughest for me so far because I didn't feel well the whole day. Yeck. And, I got a late start because of an issue with the 85' lift. So I was a little out of sorts mentally, but managed to get a good amount done anyways. 

Speaking of the lift - I am SO THANKFUL for DL Bryant. He is THE MAN. I've taken to calling him Uncle DL. Right now, he's letting me use an 85' foot lift and a 60' foot lift for free. He owns a paint contracting business in Lynchburg and has been MORE than accomodating when it comes to any of my questions or needs. So when the platform wasn't rotating, I was able to call him up and he came right out to fix it. Thanks DL!!!!

Day 9

This was my first day with volunteers and it went really well! Hoorah for Keena Wood for organizing this group from the United Way. Keena heads up the Young Leaders (and was my very first friend in Lynchburg!) and when I asked her if they'd like to help, she jumped on board! 

It was really neat to see people I'd never met come out and paint just because they wanted to help. And we had fun! The news showed up AGAIN which got me all frazzled, but my interview skills vastly improved since the first run. And I was glad they wanted to cover the group of volunteers helping. 

So that about sums it up!

I took today off to spend at church and relaxing at home with Brent and tomorrow it's back to work. And Friday my parents will be here to visit and help!! I can't wait! 

And lastly...

Have I mentioned how awesome Brent has been during this time? :) We've been getting up each morning together listening to worship music, praying and spending quiet time together. He's even making my coffee and breakfast! I have felt guilty because I decided not to cook for the 6 weeks - so when this is over, I will be cooking up a storm and waiting on him hand and foot! 

Thank you all for the encouragement too! It means a lot and definitely keeps me going when I'm tired to read the notes on facebook, instagram and the blog.

I just love knowing that this mural is something that so many people are going to get to enjoy. As I so cheesily said on the news, "I just want it to make people smile." I hope it does Lynchburg! 

 

Big Announcement! (Literally)

I've been sitting on this exciting news since September - so I'm thrilled to finally announce the exciting project I'll be working on the next 6 weeks or so...STARTING TODAY!!!

Back in June, the Academy of Fine Arts here in Lynchburg announced a mural design competition. I knew instantly that I not only had to enter this, but that I had to do everything I could to win.

I love murals and public art pieces. Lynchburg is a historic town with so much character, but as soon as I got here, I thought "Wow, this place could use some more murals".  A public art piece can add life and excitement to the community - it's art that is shared with everyone who passes by. I love that about outdoor murals. 

So it's been my dream to paint a gigantic wall for the past few years, but getting that first wall to paint can be quite difficult. I did a few smaller murals when I was teaching high school art, and worked with the students to do collaborative murals as well, and through studying murals and street art with them, I became obsessed. So when I saw this contest and the opportunity for the winning artist to actually paint the mural - I gave it my all. 

And I won! 

Since then, I've been working closely with the Academy to make this mural happen. A lot of things had to be worked out in order to paint this wall - funding, logistics, materials, weather, etc. 

Funding - um, murals are not cheap to make happen. That's all I'll say about money.

Logistics - the wall is 131 feet long. On one side, it's 39 feet tall, but the building slopes down a hill, making the other side 51 feet tall.  Yah, so it's more than 5500 square feet. It's huge. I will be painting on a lift 99% of the time, however, due the hill, a 60' lift would not reach - so for the first few days of painting, I'll be on an 85' lift (holy cow). Then I'll switch to the 60' lift for the remainder. (Don't worry, I'll be harnessed in at all times).

I'm going to work right to left, and using the gridding process, I'll be painting in 10 foot squared sections. I hope to get 2-3 sections done a day. Somedays I may get more done, somedays less. 

The wall is very old and made of brick and the paint was flaking off everywhere, so a company came out and power washed and then primed the wall. Now it's ready for me!

Materials - This much paint costs a lot of money. But the amazing people at James T. Davis Paint here in Lynchburg have donated ALL OF IT. How cool is that? Of course, we need the obvious materials such as rollers, brushes, drop cloths, etc. No brainers. And, D.L. Bryant Paint Contractor is donating the use of his lifts. He's the best! 

Weather - The winter months have kept us from doing anything - you can't paint when it's freezing, nor would I want to, so we've been planning a March start. March has been colder than expected though, and not only has it been cold, but it's been snowing. So we've pushed the start date back a little. Once I begin, I plan to paint every day it is not raining. I'm praying for some beautiful, warm sunny days and I'll just treat the rainy days as days off. 

Community - Because this is a mural for the entire community to enjoy, we are enlisting the help of volunteers. Of course, we can't get a bunch of people up on the lift with me, but we will have groups coming to help with the bottom portions. It will be so great to work with these volunteers and I'm thankful for the people who are going to help!

I showed the design I entered on the blog way back in July, but it's changed some, and I think it will be more fun to post photos of it step by step. If you search back you can find the design - but I'm not going to post it again. You can just watch it unfold :)

Lastly - this is a huge project. HUGE. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to do this, but I know that I cannot do this without the Lord. So I will daily be seeking His help and covet your prayers. It's going to be exhausting, but I'll be clinging to this verse:

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". - Phil 4:13

I hope to give udpates on the blog as often as possible - but I'll surely be instagramming daily as well, so you can follow me there (@makewells). 

Someday is Today! Let's do this...

Where Did I Go?

Well, I know I disappeared for a while, but I'm back. So hello :)

I'll start by saying that my first winter was rough. Despite the excitement of snow, a wonderful day skiing with my hubby, and a few beautiful "warmer" (aka, 55 degrees) days, I did not like winter. And as I write this on the 5th day of spring, I currently have 6 inches of snow in my yard. 

I'm very thankful for where God has Brent and I, and the ways He has provided for us, but despite all the blessings, I sank into the winter blues and had a hard time coming out of them. So this month was a big wakeup call - a huge reminder of how much I desperately need Jesus every single moment of every day. 

A lot of things with Makewells were put on hold the past month because of the above confessions and because of an upcoming -and very soon to be announced - project. (I plan to share this in the next day or two). So I just stepped away from the blog for a bit to get things, and myself, in order. 

There. Now you are caught up. 

I did make a lot of art in March though - my Mixed Media Workshop class inspired me to start art journaling again, and working with a lot of different materials and techniques I hadn't touched for quite some time. 

Here is a look at the messy creations:

 

The above painting I completed last week - it's 3' x 4' with all sorts of materials used. I decided to just go crazy with collage materials (maps, vintage stamps, lace papers, magazine clippings, Liberty of London patters, dress patterns, and even clippings from my sketchbook) for the background. It was so freeing to work so large and unplanned.

The quote, "Someday is Today" just popped into my head, but it really means a lot to me. I'll be starting this huge, soon-to-be-announced project and it just is a reminder that in order to achieve great things, you have to just DO them. God is giving me an opportunity to do something big and exciting - and the dream of "someday I will do this..." is now happening.

Someday is Today. Make the most of it.

Happy Monday!

Makewells on DIY Bride

Back in the fall, I got to work with the lovely Alex, putting together all sorts of lettering pieces for her wedding in The Woodlands, Texas. 

Last week, her wedding was published on DIY Bride - a fun wedding blog highlighting all sorts of DIY elements of course - and it was so fun to see my work doing its thing at the wedding. 

You can check out the entire wedding here - and the talented photographer behind all these shots, Michelle Boyd, here.

It's always fun to get to see these things I make come to life after I've shipped them off!