Evolution of a mural

When I first started in this business I strictly did murals, hence my business name, Natalie Gorden Murals.  After many wonderful classes with some very talented folks in the business, I branched out to include decorative (faux) finishes in my repertoire. Over the last few years, it seems, I've done mostly faux and fewer murals, so when I get a call for a mural I get very excited because I love to do them not only as a change of pace but creatively, they are very satisfying.

Previous school mural

 Last spring I was contacted by the principal of a local middle school who, thankfully, found me and my work through a google search. (Glad to know that still works). Scott told me he wanted a mural done in the school gymnasium to replace a mural that was already there.  The school's mascot is "magic" and the previous mural was done in a theme that he and many teachers and parents felt was no longer relevant to the school and the image he wanted to project. He wanted something that depicted unity and diversity.  Upon our first meeting he showed me an image of a mural done by a very talented artist in Colorado. It was exactly what he wanted. Using another artist's design poses a problem for copyright issues and I would not do so if I didn't have the express permission of that artist. Upon browsing the artist's website, www.markclinedesign.com, I read that he was happy to share the image with other artists. Whew! That was a relief. So the remaining challenge of this mural was that it was really two murals in one. The first mural was to be the image of  two hands intertwined in a round shape with a globe superimposed on top. You can see Mark's mural here. Such a great image it's no wonder our principal wanted to use it.

The hands image was to be painted on a moveable wall consisting of 13 four-foot panels that slide to either the cafeteria or the gymnasium and needed to stand on its own.  The second mural was to be painted on the concrete border surrounding the stage area of the gym, therefore ultimately tying into the hand mural.  It was nice that the first mural was already designed for me, although I'd love to design something original, I truly like the image chosen and Scott's mind was already set on this image.

My version of the global hands, wall is on the cafeteria side.

The next challenge was to design the rest of the mural in such a way to incorporate the first mural and depict images fit for a sports gymnasium. The P. E. teachers had their opinions which is understandable because they spend more time in the gym than anybody. It seems that the previous mural which I was to cover, was never approved or even run by them so I wanted to make something they'd enjoy as well. It took us a few tries to nail down the design but we finally came up with something to please everybody and THAT is a feat in and of itself.

 Having a background in Graphic Design, I tend to create a lot of my designs on the computer. For this mural, that was very helpful because I wanted a very simple yet impactive design. Depicting "magic" is not easy.  I could see the direction the previous murals was going, but it was not what the staff wanted. The school's uniforms and logo have stars in them, so we went with that and as the P.E. teachers requested, kept the original "Magic Kingdome" theme for the gym.  A few sports silhouettes chosen by the teachers were all we needed for our gym tie in. The crown and stars help with the "magic" theme in a subtle way. 

This mural was my third middle school in Washoe County School District and I'm very honored to have been chosen to execute it.

Fab fireplace redo

I have talked many times about how color can make a dramatic change in decor. My most recent client has done well with adding color to her home and likes to describe herself as a cave dweller. Her explanation is that she needs her home to have color and to be monochromatic. She did indeed have many different shades of caramels and chocolates in every part of her decor from the walls to the couch and the accessories. Having been in the home for several years now, the builder's white fireplace was wearing on my client's last nerve. It's no doubt that amongst all the warm colors she had in there, the fireplace was surely the sore thumb.
Here's what I did to change it up:
A fabulous torn paper treatment was already on the wall behind the fireplace and gave me the color palette for what I was going to do. I was requested to make the fireplace surround look like an old European antique. I took inspiration from the many hand-painted frames, and pieces of furniture in my client's decor and came up with a scrolled design and added fleur-de-lis at the homeowner's request. This finish is done in a couple layers of textural products, with custom designed and hand-painted elements. For the scroll work, I used a metallic gold that worked with the copper glaze on the tiles that surround the fireplace and the various gold and coppers around the home. I chose to keep the glaze very light to give an interesting contrast to the beautiful wall treatment. I think I know what I'm doing to my own fireplace now!