South Park Lab Mural
Here's a little mural I snuck in-between teaching my South Park Library youth mural workshop and Poke to the Max mural. The space is operated by Cote owner of Resistencia where I also have a mural. Named The South Park Idea Lab, this space offers itself to the creatives of the community. It comes equipped with a meeting area, wifi, full kitchen, lots of natural light, and availability for events, conferences, planning times, or just a quiet space to work on personal projects.
About the Design: We all wanted to keep the mural colorful and within the perimeters of the aesthetic curated by Emily Chou Lee of Urban Getaway Design and Style. I offered 2 ideas for directions we could take; one leaves with light to no line-work (a little something I'm experimenting with) and a geometric inspired leaf design. Cote mentioned the space told her its name, The Tree Fort and I think it's very appropriate for the design we selected.
I painted this in a weekend and incorporated the ceiling as a bonus to the experience of the mural. I taped off the edge of the painting so it looks like a ray of light coming out of the ceiling fixture (boob light). When finished we were still unsure of how the piece fit in the space. Cote mentioned it looked too rigid and not as organic as we hoped. She suggested painting some of the leaves growing out of the barrier I had taped off and it was a huge success. From this we jokingly quoted "Nevertheless she persisted" and it all just fit. This is really what makes this specific mural so complete; the overgrowth signifying the need to grow in places where one's told not to.
My favorite part of this whole experience was having Cote paint with me one afternoon; she working on a canvas and I on the mural. We thoroughly used the space as intended; to bring together creative people and I hope it brings the community joy. Happy 2020!
