SHINE 9
Muralist: 9th Annual SHINE Mural Festival
In 2023, I was honored to be chosen as a participating muralist for the 9th Annual SHINE Mural Festival. As a local artist of many years, I had long admired the art produced in SHINE and was surprised to be selected, as I am not typically known for my large-scale work.
After some time spent planning, I began work on the mural with the help of many good friends. I cannot overstate how integral the community was in helping this project come to fruition. The mural is situated behind The Werk Gallery and they went out of their way to make me feel welcome and enabled with anything I might need for the nearly two weeks I was out there working. The SHINE organization and volunteers provided me with literally anything I needed, including supplies, storage, food and drink for the duration, and made the process as painless as possible. The other SHINE artists – both local and visiting, past and present – stopping by to offer camaraderie and a brief break from the work were invaluable in keeping up morale. The constant stream of onlookers, with their genuine interest and curiosity boosted my spirit.
Most of all, however, I cannot thank those enough who came out day after day to help paint the mural itself. I was assigned a large wall and had an ambitious plan, and there is no way I could have finished in time without the generous gift of so many helping hands.
In the end, I was alone around 1am when I finished the final work on the mural, and sitting there in the breeze, high in the air atop the lift, was one of those brilliant moments in life I will treasure forever. It was an exhausting process, but one I am incredibly grateful to have experienced.
Photo Courtesy of Mark Rapien
Concept Drawing
Finished Mural – Photo Courtesy of Mark Rapien
Breaking Free
Artist Statement
For my mural, I wanted to do something hopeful and bright, and the color palette reflects that intent. I took inspiration primarily from classical art and 70s prog rock album covers. I am a big fan of Roger Dean – the artist behind covers for bands such as Yes and Uriah Heep – and borrowed some of his themes for this piece. In the foreground, you see two statues in a colonnade, and as your eye moves across the piece into the mid and background, you become aware that the land and temple are breaking apart, with parts floating off into the sun. The furthest statue has awakened and is stepping off of her base, gazing into the sun. Although the context – the solid ground she has been standing upon is breaking apart – should be frightening, she is looking into the light and moving towards her new existence. This is a metaphor for the process of being reborn in the breaking we all face in our lives, for waking up to the beautiful and terrifying reality of self, and becoming another thing and venturing into the unknown.
Spatially, the piece unfolds for you as you round the corner approaching it. Your first view is of the static statues, and as you come closer, the rays of sunlight draw you in to the rest of the scene. There is not much room to stand back from the piece, so you are forced to confront its magnitude up-close, pulling you into the world in which it exists.
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