This is my first post on my new blog and I'm excited to get started. It is my hope to inspire others to create something from nothing and to follow through. Please remember that you are your own worst critic and that you will not please everybody.
I have been painting walls now for six years and have grown with every mural or faux finish that I have completed. I talk about following through with projects because I used to be the queen of unfinished artwork. I think it took a lot of coaxing from friends and coworkers to bring out the completer in me. I am happy to say that I've never left a client hanging. I won't talk about how I can't decide on the 3 paint colors I've put up in random shapes on the wall in my own bathroom, however.
I started my career by painting a mural for a coworker's daughter when I was about 6 months pregnant with my second child. It was nothing fancy and of course I look back at it now and think "Man, have I come a long way." I was addicted to painting on walls from that mural on. It may have been all the wonderful Bosnian food my friend's mother made a piggy little pregnant girl, but I had an itch to find more people to work for every since then.
I have done murals (and faux finishes) for many adults, but I have to say that I absolutely love to do a mural for children. I find such great satisfaction in creating a new world for a child, something that they will live in for a long time and remember for their entire life. Kids are absolutely the most appreciative of clients even with the smallest of butterflies or the simplest truck, they exude absolutely pure adoration for something created especially with them in mind. I marvel at their exact requests and their ability to explain what they would like to see in their room. Often certain things would visually be more interesting one way and as I chat with a child to explain that to them it always amazes me at how visionary they can be.
I have a soft spot for nurseries and have done quite a few. It is an honor to be a part of something so important personal in a couple's life as the creation of a room that their unborn child will grow up in. It is always a challenge to fashion a design that will grow with the child and still be interesting at the age of 4 or 5. I always tell my expecting clients that I make them the priority and will work them in anytime to ensure that the room is ready in plenty of time. I think they appreciate that. I am now in the process of designing another nursery for a sweet little premie who caught her parents unready. As most babies do, she'll be sleeping with Mom and Dad for quite a while, so we are in no hurry to get the room finished. I'll post pics from that room when I have them.
In the meantime, I've got a lot of designs under my belt and available for viewing on my website. www.nataliegorden.com
