My Mural Masterpiece!

This summer, I had the pleasurable challenge of creating a mural to go outside my favorite art store Mrs. O'Leary's in downtown Wichita, Kansas.  It has just been installed, and I am thrilled with how amazingly awesome it looks!  It hangs just beside the store's west entrance at 126 N. Mead in Old Town. 

The painting was created on gessoed plywood with Patio Acrylic Paints.  I knew the two pieces would be separated, but I wanted to plan the composition so that even as a diptych, they would look like one continuous piece.

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Astonishingly, the composition was left up to my artistic discretion. I decided I wanted to incorporate an homage to different art historical perspectives, so it would stay relevant, while also adding a bit of artful significance to the art store, itself.

Seeing this assignment as somewhat of a daunting task at times, I just knew The Scream by Edvard Munch had to be incorporated. I thought he would be perfect standing on Van Gogh's moon from Starry Night. (I took the artistic liberty of reversing the orientation of the moon, to draw the viewer into the panel.

I also knew I had to include my own version of  Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.  She just speaks volumes with her quite gaze and art historical reference.  She wears the Gothic window charm around her neck from Grant Wood's American Gothic.   And, just to add a bit more whimsy to her, I decided she had to wear a set of monarch wings!

Due to the significance of the store name, I felt I needed to incorporate Mrs. O'Leary's cow. Salvador Dali's melting clock from the Persistence of Memory drapes over her back. She stands in a field of sunflowers to represent her new home state of Kansas (as opposed to Illinois!).

And of course, you will recognize the sky as that from Van Gogh's Starry Night. It just sets the perfect mood to the piece, and ties the two panels together. I also tied the two together with the addition of the banner at the top left and bottom right. I decided "CREATE DREAMS" represented the art store's mission as many amazing dreams are created there daily! Many humbled thanks go out to Joni and Mark, the owners of the store for allowing my work to grace their building...I had a blast and learned a lot while creating my masterpiece! Thanks for the opportunity!