| My Mural Project Story: Almost Two years ago, my principal came up to me and told me that I might be interested in staying in school because they had heard something about a mural project that they thought I should participate in. The City Council, City Manager commissioned a very talented Artist, by the name of Suzanne, to put a mural on this big ugly wall. She said she would and requested that they let her round up volunteer artists from the highschools to help her paint it and at the same time they could learn some painting techniques and that there are well paying careers in Art. They thought it was a great idea and they got stared on funding and working out all the kinks and legalities what have you... Meanwhile I didn't hear anything about the project for like half a year. Then I met Ryan, and we were out drinking coffee and I mentioned something about this Mural Project my principal had told me about a while back and that I wondered whatever happened with that, and he said "Yeah, my mom was supposed to be working on that." I was sorta lost for a second but it turned out that his mother, Kathy, worked for Suzanne and within a few weeks we started working on the mural. By starting I mean, we talked about it... but nothing was coming out of our talking. Suzanne told us to gather up all the most interesting information about our city's history. A lot of time was wasted doing, I can't remember what and everyone was getting impatient... "We want to see something!" "We have to know what we're painting before we paint it, we need renderings... We are running out of time!" I was, finally, the one to put together the first rendering, based on some of the ideas that the other people had talked about. From there we were up and running. I had to make a few more renderings, show them to the Community Development Director, and the City Manager... I had no idea (at the time) who these people were, I was told to show them and I did and tried not to ask questions. One day I was just hanging out doing whatever and Kathy called me and told me we had another meeting to go that night. "Okay, no problem." I wore my jeans, vans, a raggedy sweater that looks like something Kurt Cobain wore, and a shirt that said "See Dick drink. See Dick drive. See Dick die... Don't be a Dick." Turns out this meeting I went to was a City Council Meeting. I didn't know what that was or that it was any big deal until I saw the mayor. There was an audience, cameras, reporters and a lot of citizens showed up. Still, no big deal, kinda cool, no BIG DEAL. Then Suzanne stood before council and told our little story and then turned to me and said "I think I'll let Kelsey explain the details." Me, like an idiot, walked right up to the stand, no idea what I was going to say. My face turned red, I was suddenly very cold and I think I muttered the words "Uhm...River..." and then lost it and started crying. Suzanne yanked me outta there and sent Ingrid (fellow student/painter) up to take over, and let me say this, she did an EXCELLENT JOB, THANK YOU INGRID. Anyway, I am now scarred for life. Another couple of weeks and we finally started the mural... Yay! It had its up and downs, ins and outs and it was a total blast. The people that worked on it were awesome and I miss them alot. It took months to finish the mural, we got a lot of press coverage, we were famous. But its over now. All Applause go to: Melody Ashby Ingrid Sayra Jessica Suzanne Kathy Mike, Janet; Burger King and other stores that gave us free food and drinks while we were out there slaving on the mural. The End |
| The Artistic Side |
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| I've always been "that girl who can draw". Sometimes I don't consider myself as an artist because I don't think I am very creative but people like my stuff, and I like doing it. Doing art for people makes them happy and I like having that ability- to make people happy, that is why I do it. So here are some little sketches of mine. No paintings yet, accept for the mural which is that strip of random color across the top of the page (in case you didnt notice it). [email protected] (click drawings to view larger) |
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