Phoenix Festival of the Arts Mural Project

I participated in a community outdoor painting “mural” last month during the Phoenix Festival of the Arts. Hugo Medina, a local muralist, posted a call to artists for live mural painting during the festival on his Facebook page and I jumped at the chance to be involved. Painting outside is awesome and something I do not get a chance to do often and painting in front of others has always intimidated me so, before I could think too much about it I signed up.  I have found the things that freak me out a bit but, feel right are best to say yes and think it through later.

 

Each artist was given a 3ftx6ft canvas and the theme “Downtown Phoenix” to inspire their work. I choose to create a desert landscape with vivid southwest colors and geometric art deco influences to celebrate art deco architecture seen around Downtown Phoenix. This piece took me about 10 hours over two days to complete. It was a wonderful experience to be outdoors painting alongside so many artists. I made some wonderful friends and was super inspired all weekend!

ArtDecoCollage

 

The festival featured live music and performers, art vendors, food trucks and over 100 artists participating in the mural project. It was amazing, we spent a few days painting our sections outdoors all around the festival with lots of people stopping to chat and enjoy the works in progress.

PhxFestivalCollage2

In addition to painting, I also worked the front gate on Sunday during the event and went to a canvas stretching workshop in November to assist in getting the 100 canvases made. The whole experience was really cool. It was my first community painting experience and I would like to allow myself the time and space to participate in similar events this year. There was something really restorative about the project.

 

The artwork created during the festival is for sale through the Phoenix Center of the Arts. A portion of the sales go to the center and a generous portions goes to the artist!

 

Phoenix Festival of the Arts: http://phoenixfestivalofthearts.org/