Interior Murals An Important Part Of The Workplace Environment

After a professional mural painting career of thirty-three plus years, we have heard much positive feed-back from many satisfied customers in a variety of interior settings. Unfortunately we did not take the time to document our customers reactions to our art work. Looking back over the years, we now realize that had we followed up each mural project with a control study, asking the clients employees specific questions regarding the value of art in the workplace, this would have been a valuable resource for us. Some studies are available and this year, we intend to conduct such a follow up study after each mural we produce. One example is found at the following internet address; http://www.nhbca.com/news_031208_workart.php (ART IN THE WORKPLACE, Survey Reveals Workplace Art Collections Are Valuable for Business).

The above mentioned study revealed that art helps businesses address some key challenges, for example;

Reducing stress (78% agree, 8% disagree and 14% neither agree nor disagree).
Increasing creativity and productivity (64% agree, 11% disagree, and 25% neither agree nor disagree).
Enhancing morale (67% agree, 13% disagree, and 20% neither agree nor disagree).
Broadening employee appreciation of diversity and encouraging discussions, and expression of opinions (77% agree, 11% disagree, and 12% neither agree nor disagree).

“The workplace art collection is often an underutilized, sometimes overlooked, business asset,” said Judith A. Jedlicka, President, BCA. “The results of this survey point to the fact that art in the work environment fosters creativity, boosts employee morale and sparks dialogues – all of which are essential to a company’s success.”

This survey also revealed that art in the workplace:

Enhances the work environment (94% agree, 3% disagree, and 3% neither agree nor disagree).
Evidences the company’s interest in improving the quality of life in and out of the workplace (84% agree, 6% disagree, and 10% neither agree nor disagree).
Helps to build customer (65% yes and 34% no) and community relations (73% yes and 27% no).
Leads to networking opportunities (52% yes and 47% no).

Another interesting article relating to this subject can be found at the following web address; http://www.allbusiness.com/services/amusement-recreation-services/4568089-1.html

This year, we have enough work lined up with our Novatek customer to keep us busy for twelve plus months. Thus, conducting a control study would be very valuable and it would be a shame to pass this opportunity up. Although we did not take the time to gather information in the past, I recently discovered a very interesting coincidence. First, I must note that we have been producing murals for Novatek since the year 2001. Upon looking at Novatek's website, I discovered a chart which illustrates the number of patents awarded Novatek for inventions, since it's founding in the 1950's and up through 2010. As you analyze this chart, you will observe a slow but steady increase in patents awarded Novatek, from the fifties decade to the year 2000. And interestingly, in the most recent decade, you will notice a drastic increase in this number. In other words, the largest percentage of patents awarded for inventions to the companies credit, were in the past ten years, as compared to previous decades. Pretty impressive. To date, Novatek has a company total of over five hundred patents since their founding and to their credit. It has been said that the company CEO makes more trips to the patent office than the average person goes grocery shopping. In observing the companies productivity first hand, I can tell you that it is hardly an exaggeration. In making this observation, an individual might ask himself, "What is it then, that has caused such an increase in productivity and company success?"

In the past decade and through my own personal observation, Novatek has done several things to improve the work environment for there employees. First I would like to add that I have never heard a Novatek employee say anything negative about the company. I get the impression that morale and productivity has always been high, even in previous decades. Even though the work environment is already top notch, Novatek continues to look for ways to improve their environment. Why? Because all these "extras" improves productivity. Do the math. An increase in productivity increases profits.

After we painted our first mural for Novatek, beginning August 2001 and added framed paintings in their conference rooms and offices, The employees observed that is seemed to add a whole new energizing dimension to the workplace. One of Novatek's customers from Texas once told me, "When I come to Novatek for business, the first thing I usually do is go to the wall where a mural is painted and soak in a little inspiration. It helps me relax and prepare myself for the business at hand."

Since 2001, the company also began to add dozens of sky lights to their rooftops, flooding the interiors with natural light. Their shops are always as clean as a hospital, even their machine shops. Their HVAC system is state-of-the-art, all adding to the employees comfort. Novatek is kind of like a state-of-the-art business incubator. They are continuously developing new technologies from the ground up and creating working prototypes. Everything is provided for them in house for their convenience, from mechanical tools and equipment, marketing research tools, intellectual properties and legal professionals, etc. All these "extra" conveniences, including our murals, seem to have weaved a decade of more successful productivity and profits. Coincidence? We like to think that Ricks Fine Art Murals has now become an important part of the companies productive fabric.

When you think about it, why do corporate officials wear business attire, drive expensive-looking cars, polish their shoes, press their shirts and pants and groom themselves nicely when meeting important customers or making presentations? Is it not because they have learned the right business attire creates a very professional first impression? It has also been shown to improve sales, because it creates an image of success. If spending the money to "dress up" the corporate building with the above described improvements will increase profits, then does it not make sense to do it? In this respect, high quality murals and artwork is the business attire and grooming standard of the corporate professional.

Our mural product is unique. It is more like a gargantuan easel painting than the typical large-scale postery, commercial-looking wall graphic. During my professional career as an artist, seventeen of those years were in the sign industry, supplementing my fine art career for a while. Our real passion is museum quality mural art with heart-felt expression. Anything less than that would seem to us like just another commercial sign job and we don't want to do another sign. We strive to reach beyond that. When we finish a mural project, it is only after we have done everything we can to give the customer our very best. Judging by the data in this article, our "very best" appears to contribute to a companies success.

Days Now, Not Weeks

MARCH 29th, 2011. We are now down to days to the finish and not weeks. For a while, I was beginning to feel like I would never see the end of this project. I look back after today, I can't almost believe how far we've come. We have spent about two and a half months on this mural. Not too bad considering it's size. SOmetimes larger projects can take just as long, if not longer. If the whole wall was flat and without obstacles, I would bet we could have had it finished two weeks ago.

I asked my brother Marty to stop by and give me a critique. He said it was my best mural yet. That was nice of him. Marty and I will often bounce a painting critique off one another's work. When we were kids, we used to criticize each other about more childish things. Now the crit's are more productive instead of destructive.

We got quite a lot accomplished today. It felt good. Now I can for sure see the end of the project. I'm glad, because I'm getting tired of working on it. It's not like in my studio where I can stop working on one painting for a while if I get bored and pick up a different one. Usually, with my gallery work, I would have four or five paintings going at a time. Cant do that with murals. The same one stares you in the face every day until it is finished. I got on the bus at 6:50 a.m., instead of my usual 7:50 ride to work. It was a good productive day. Lucky the bus route has a stop just a few hundred feet from the building where this mural is inside. Gas prices are getting crazy!

A Bit Of A Break From The Mural

MARCH 28th, 2011. OOPS! No one picture from my camera today. The batteries were completely dead. I take new pictures tomorrow and post them. My day was a little shorter than normal too. I stopped by the LDS FOOD STORAGE CANNERY and purchased 100 5.5lb #10 cans of red wheat. Next week, I plan to buy some other grains. Can't be too sure of the economy's future and the nation's future for that matter. Don't get me wrong, I do love America, but it seems sinister things are going on in our nation's government and around the world. And my state, Utah, along with at least thirteen other states, are considering legislation to allow gold and silver coinage as legal tender so they don't go broke. When Obama said to do nothing in preparation for radioactive fallout after the Japanese disaster, I determined to still prepare emergency supplies. I know that to panic is unwise, but better be prepared for any worse case a scenario than caught with your pants down. What would happen if Utah or your own area is hit by an earthquake of Japan-like magnitude. Are you prepared to survive it? Or perhaps a flood? When I was 17, I witnessed the Teton Dam Disaster, as a monstrous wall of water devastated my community. My parents had built up our two year supply of food as our church had recommended, but we did loose most of it in the flood. The important thing was, we developed a habit of building an emergency store of food in case emergency strikes. My parents had passed that habit on to my siblings and I. Isn't it better be prepared for what if, than not?

We need to get back to the direction our Founding Fathers intended. To say that our Constitution is an outdated document is foolishness. We need to support and uphold the Constitution now more than ever. What if the US dollar collapsed. I see that as a possibility on the horizon. If so, soon there would be no food in the stores. What if the economy brought on massive unemployment and you were swept up in it? Isn't it wise to have a store of food in these times? Don't be like the fiddling Grasshopper who danced and played his fiddle all summer long instead of storing for the future like his neighbors, an ant colony. When winter came and the grasshopper got hungry, he realized that spending his time entertaining himself, instead of storing food was a foolish idea. His songs were no longer cheerful songs.

A Model For Creative Success

MARCH 24. Today the area we worked in was much smaller and more difficult. On the left end, I had to spend a lot of time going up and down scaffolding. It was frustrating having to climb up and down the clumsy support. A lot of time gets waisted, the scaffolding is in the way of my view when I back up and I could not back up very far. The client is okay with the time I take to get things right, but I want this project finished, yet it also has to be right. Right, but not necessarily perfect. It has to have the right look and feel. And yes, we're getting there.

I had an interesting conversation with a tool and equipment salesman today. I don't recall the gentleman's name (not very good at remembering names), but I consider the man a friend. Two or three times a week, he will stop by to discuss the company's needs and always tell me how much he admires the murals I paint for Novatek. I made the comment today, that with three murals for Novatek this year, it seems that I have become part of the fabric of the company. I also said that I like to think that my murals have had a profound influence on the corporation's success.

For example; Recently, I took a look at Novatek's website. Some stats and a chart on their site show the number of patents that were awarded to Novatek since it's founding back in the 1950's. The past ten years in particular, the chart shows a sharper increase in number of patents awarded to them, as compared to the slow, but steady accumulation of patents from previous decades. In other words, Novatek has gained most of their patents, from their 500+ company total, in the past ten years. The client has also been honored as the top inventor in Utah several years in a row and I think his company is the top Utah business for cranking out the most inventions per year. Pretty impressive. Ten years ago would have been 2001, the year I started painting murals for the company. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Do my murals deserve this much credit for their success? It's one of those things you can't for sure put your finger on, but where would the company be today without our mural product on their walls?

I asked the tool salesman to tell me how he honestly feels when he walks into other machine shops as compared to Novatek's. He said their are other shops just as clean, with bright colored paint on the walls. Some of these shops even have larger skylights than Novatek's. He likes to go their too. The environment is comfortable and nice. In these places, the moral is noticeably higher and the employees are proud of their work and their workplace.

He has also been in other shops that have metal shavings all over the floor, which get stuck in the bottom of his shoes before he leaves, or is greasy and grimy all over and dark like a dungeon. Often, in these shops he has noticed low moral and the employees just want to get their paycheck and get the heck out of there as soon as the bell rings. If I remember right, I think he also indicated that he has heard from more Novatek employees about how much they like their company than from other employees from other companies.

With Novatek's successful business model, the CEO goes more than the extra mile to create an environment which inspires high productivity, inspiration and huge success with his employees various projects. Some people might criticize his "extra mile" efforts, calling them too extreme or the murals, a frivolous waste of money. But when comparing spending tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on these extras, to the tens of millions, hundreds of millions or even billions in return profits, are my murals a waste of money? Novatek's business model works and perhaps, we play an important role in it.

BLOG CHANGES AND OTHER CHANGES

Last night, when I downloaded pictures on the blog, everything was moving real slow. I figured out that I have too many pictures on my blog and that is the cause. Some of the previous progress JPEG's had to be eliminated in order to continue blogging my daily mural progress. I plan to find another place to store these JPEG's and then link to this blog, which will allow you to go back and see what it looked like in the beginning or just a few days ago.

I have a friend I'm paying to help me build a real professional website. In a few months we will have better capability to continue to blog my murals.

I learned today that the third mural will be smaller than we first thought. The client gave me a new budget for the project. In order to meet his budget, we cut the square feet down about 1600 square feet. We went from 6000 square feet, to 4400 square feet. The third project will still be the largest mural we've painted yet. It is almost 1000 square feet more than our gigantic mural.

I will be getting a new boss soon as well. The current man over my project has been burning candles at both ends, working up to the midnight hour nearly every workday. Recently, he asked my client to let him cut back and was relieved of 50% of his responsibility today. He seemed much happier. I hope the new guy is good to work with.

A Weird Day

Yesterday, I didn't get quite as much done on the mural as I had hoped to do. My morning was interrupted by a visit to the audiologist. On my way to see the specialist, I got a call from my third from the oldest daughter Kendra. She informed me that over the weekend, she became engaged to be married. I can't wait to meet her fiancee'. We will have him over for dinner soon.

At the mural site, things went pretty good, despite the fact that I lost most of a productive morning from the hearing specialist visit. By the time I came home that evening, I was exhausted. Around 9 p.m. that evening, my cell phone rang. The I.D. showed that it was my youngest daughter Annie who is now 20 years old. I answered and said, "Hi Annie! Not you to?" Yup, you guessed it. She informed me that she got engaged three hours previous to her phone call. I half expected that another daughter would call and tell us the same news before the night was over, so I went to bed. I didn't sleep well. Fortunately, the third call didn't happen, but still, two's too much for a dad all in one day!

On the mural we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. All we are doing now is making adjustments and adding detail where needed. It is going much slower as we finish the mural. It won't be long and we'll be back painting on the mural in the MC Print building.

Noisy Shop, But Peaceful Setting.

As I mentioned before, the shop where the Mountain Vista Mural is being painted is a machine shop, yet as clean as any hospital. The ceiling has many skylights, which bring a soft, naturalistic light into the workspace below. The HVAC system is state of the art and very comfortable. And of course, our mural adds beauty to the otherwise stark white corporate looking walls. All of Novatek's buildings are designed to inspire creativity. The Novatek business model follows a Thomas Edison like approach and workspace set up. During Edison's productive lifetime, he patented a little over 1,000 inventions. Novatek has been in operation since the early 1950's and they already have over 500 patents. The lions share of Novatek's patents have been in the last ten years or so. It has been said that the company CEO makes more trips to the patent office than the average person goes to the grocery store. The past few years, Novatek has basically held the record for the most inventions cranked out of their Utah company, when compared to several other productive Utah based firms.

I officially learned about twelve years ago, that I was born with a severe hearing impairment in my left ear. I had suspected this for many years, but didn't go in to get my hearing officially checked out until I was in my early Forties. At first, it was just my left ear with nerve damage, then my right ear had been effected mostly by loud noise damage. This could only be corrected with two hearing aids and I received my first pair with my first visit. My hearing aids (new three years ago), have served me well, yet the past few weeks, I had noticed that I wasn't hearing well in my left ear. At first, I thought my ear was plugged with wax, which happens quite a lot. After I realized my ears were void of earwax, I figured an adjustment in my hearing aid would be needed. Today I paid my audiologist a visit and learned that my hearing device is fine, but the hearing in my left ear had gotten worse. Perhaps in a few years, I may be nearly or completely deaf. I guess I better get a head start on learning some American Sign Language or I may go around annoying everyone with my, "Eh? Eh? What? Would you repeat that sonny?"

The shop where I'm working is noisy. Perhaps the noise exposure has contributed to my loss? If I wear ear plugs, I may as well be completely deaf. I'm already half deaf. Oh well. As long as I don't go blind or loose my left hand (last December I almost lost a few fingers on the left hand with a table saw). Better be careful.

One Of Life's Purposes

If you haven't seen the Carl Block life of Christ visual art show at the BYU Utah Museum of Art, this is a must see and perhaps a once in a lifetime experience. The Dutch artist was an incredible academic painter of the human figure. I believe he depicted Christ more accurately than most artists who have dared to attempt such a sacred and difficult task. Many artists have painted the Savior to have an effeminate look. Was He kind, loving, your most loyal friend? Yes He was. There is really nothing unmanly about such qualities in a man, but the Son of God was not effeminate.

I am a Mormon and I am a professional artist. Among the members of my faith, many gifted artists are developing their talents professionally. I believe all of God's children were born with inherent qualities which can develop as gifts later in their lives. God blessed His children with a diversity of spiritual gifts and talents. It is up to us individually to develop them. I used to struggle with the concept of making a living painting and balancing my God-given talent with the desire to raise children and be a good father. Sometimes it seemed that making the necessary sacrifices to develop my art career conflicted with being a good Mormon dad. The flip side of this struggle is the acknowledgment of where my talent to paint came from and if it did come from God, do I not have the responsibility to develop my talent? I believe the answer is, YES. I also believe that everything has it's own time and season. I also know from experience that in being a father, husband and grandfather and the opportunity to serve your family in this capacity, there is no greater joy, because it is following the example of the Savior. Serving others is true joy. I can use my talent to serve others, by painting things which bring joy in their lives. When those who appreciate my work express that a painting or a mural I created makes them feel good, it brings me joy. I like painting murals. It brings me joy when I can share my gift with the public.

Today, I know without doubt that I was born to be an artist. I know there is a great purpose in developing my gifts for the blessing of others. The struggle to balance my life is not as difficult to me mentally and emotionally as it was before. Part of it is because my children are almost all raised and part of it is because I have come to know inside, without guilt, I was born to paint and I am currently able to provide for my family quite well, doing what I love. It also helps to have a creative and fully supportive spouse who encourages me. I am very blessed.

It would have been a shame if Carl Block had listened to his critics about the life and struggles of an artist and had chosen another profession. The greatest work of his entire career as a Master artist is illustrated in the current BYU show. His work certainly glorifies God. It would have been a shame had they never been created. Go to; http://carlbloch.byu.edu/

New Feature On Banner Of Client's Website

Perhaps this is a premature announcement, but we heard some more good things from the client. Our murals will be featured on the company website home page at the very top in a flash player banner. They will be bringing professional photographers in to photograph the murals from all angles in each building, which will show the layout of the shop with the mural in the background. We're thrilled to say the least! With three murals to paint for Novatek in 2011, we have definitely become part of the fabric of "the Novatek way".

This tells us further that the client likes his murals. We must be doing our job and we're working hard to make our murals look so good that we will surely get more business from them after we let some key potential clients see them in person. The plan is to try to have this mural finished by next weekend, yet that is not as important as making everything look just right. Deadlines are good motivators as long as quality is not sacrificed. My promise to the client is always that the mural will have the look he is after and as I mentioned before, I want to be able to sleep at night --- No nightmares from bad artwork are allowed.

Never Happier Than When I'm Creating With Paint

I am approaching my fifty-third birthday. I will be the big five / three in July. My professional art career began when I was twenty-two. From the time I was ten years old, to the present, the passion to paint has stayed with me like natural breathing. I've seen many ups and downs in the art business and one year (about 1984), things got so financially and emotionally stressful that I even said, "To hell with painting!" During this time in my life, I already had one foot in fine art and one foot in the sign business. Although I put art galleries aside for a while, my heart never was really in the sign business. Deep down inside, I knew I had to pick up painting again someday. While operating Ricks Sign Company and putting a little food on the table, I found I missed being at my easel, although I was angry inside that my art career wasn't going the direction I wanted at the time. Raising a family and making a living as an artist was hard. I loved art, but I also loved my children. I wanted to be a good Mormon dad and husband, but I also wanted to paint for a living. During that time in my life, I saw the two loves as a conflicting battle. I struggled with guilt with this conflict as I perceived it for some time. My first wife was not so supportive in the arts, but she was a very good mother and a good person. As I look back, I do not regret having seven wonderful children and being a father to them. Fatherhood is the highest and most noble responsibility for a man.

My children are almost all raised now. I remarried in 1999 and with my wife Karen's encouragement, I went back into the art business in the fall of 2001. During my years as a sign painter, I occasioned an opportunity here and there to paint a mural on a wall out doors. When I was sixteen, my high school art teacher put me in charge of painting a mural of a bobcat, the school mascot, on the gym wall. This was my first mural job and I enjoyed every minute of it. Years later, as a father, here I was in the sign business and had a little money coming in. Every once-in-a-while, I found myself painting a gigantic landscape on someone's wall. In Idaho, I never made much of a profit or sometimes went into the hole a little on mural projects, but I discovered I was happy each time I had a mural to paint. My heart longed for the day I could pick up a paintbrush and paint without guilt. I knew in my heart that I would be painting again in the future. Although I didn't make much money at it in the Idaho market, I later learned that my fine art training and my sign painting experience was good training for the mural work I do today. My ability to paint very large mural work was developed by adapting both these skills. Since 2001, I have painted murals for some important clients such as Novatek, International; Alcoa, Incorporated; building contractors, public schools; some private clients, etc, and my favorite and most public, a Cabelas store in East Hartford, Connecticut.

My murals today are not large commercial graphics. They're more like gargantuan fine art easel paintings in commercial or industrial settings and after seventeen years in the sign trade, I was so tired of sign painting and vowed to never let my murals look like a commercial sign job. Today, the situation is reversed. I know painting is what I was born to do and I am doing it. Now I say, "To hell with sign painting" and not feel a bit guilty about it!

Our mural product today, brings a little art culture into interior spaces. We specialize in creating a spiritually relaxing and visual feast. We go the extra mile and put our heart and soul into our mural work. We call our product, Ricks Fine Art Murals.

Got Rid Of A Few More Zombies And One Big One!

Stressing out over whether or not we for sure got the bid on the third mural this week. I mean, It was either our product or competing with a large format digital printer --- I felt like I was being replaced by a robot. I have been suffering migraine headaches from the stress of it all and stressing out on a few unsettled less finished areas in the Mountain Vista Mural.

Last week we took a day off from this project and went to Salt Lake to do some due diligence, comparing our hand painted fine art product vs. large format printing. The end result --- we found out that pixilation quality could be a big issue on something as large as 30 feet high by 200 feet long (the size of the next wall that gets the mural). We also learned that my bid was way more competitive than having a the mural produced digitally. We beat the digital bid by $6 per square feet less than digital and we still can make a profit. There were other factors where we had the greater advantage such as; What if the enlarged image looked different once it was scaled up on the wall? Too late to make corrections if you didn't see the problem in the smaller scaled concept. WE CAN MAKE THOSE CHANGES BY HAND IF NECESSARY! Not a problem for us.

More often than not, the mural does look a little different, especially with small dark areas suddenly looking too big and obnoxious once it is enlarged. When creating the small scaled preliminary sketch, you try to solve all the design issues, but you must always anticipate that the enlarged concept, once it is on the wall, could look a little different. If it does, what are you going to do to fix the problem and you must be prepared to make them when they come up. DO you have what it takes?

It was a relief when the client came by today. He was very happy with how the mural was turning out and let me know that I can start on the big 30 foot by 200 foot mural as soon as the Mountain Vista and MC Print Murals are finished. When I heard this today, it was such a relief... Whew! My stress was reduced and the migraine headache went away almost immediately!

Out Of Zombie Territory

The mural is really coming together now, but sometimes the best thing to do is get away from it and come back with a fresh eye. A lot of area has been covered now --- Pretty much every square inch. There is a large amount of detail throughout the scene, some of which I may go back through and simplify. At this point, things will considerably slow down. Slight color adjustments, minor design alterations and value corrections here and there will be the focus up to the finish, which I anticipate will happen sometime next week. We have come a long way since we started the project the first of January. At one point, I didn't think we'd every be able to completely solve the design issues we struggled with, yet we came out winning! Perhaps it's not perfect, but I won't have nightmares over it. I hate it when a bad painting haunts me. I always do everything I can to avoid having my own work haunt me like a Zombie sucking out my brain. So I guess the analogy of the day is; Basically I'm spending the remaining hours on this mural killing off all the Zombies until every last one of them are dead!

Mount Vista Mural About 90% Finished

We're getting closer to the finish. We were able to put a lot of form on most of the aspen and pine tree areas and foreground areas. We have one last area left to give it more of a 3D look and that is about the last 12-15 feet to the left end. We plan to work on the trees in the left quarter of the mural Tuesday, March 15th. On Thursday, I have business in Salt Lake City all day, so I hope to get a lot done before Thursday. Good news from the client today. I know what the next murals subject will be. He wants me to depict a scene in the next mural which I painted for one of his conference rooms in 2006. The subject was of Mount Timpanogos in the winter with the last light at sundown around the twilight time of day. The proportion of the wall is long enough that I may include Rock Canyon too.

The Day of the Tsunami in Japan

The day started off with a big shock when I got up and checked my email this morning. About 6 a.m., we learned that an 8.9 earthquake a couple hundred miles east of Japan, rocked the island country and sent a tsunami crashing into it's eastern coastline. Hundreds of peoples bodies have washed up on shore. Throughout the day, dozens of aftershocks registering at about six points on the richter scale, continues to rock the nation. We then learned that the Tsunami would also threaten Hawaii and the pacific coast of the United States. We have a son living in Hayward, California, which is only a few miles off the coast and south of San Francisco. We haven't heard from him yet, but from the sound of it, the waves were only a couple of feet high and hit the coastline after the tide had already receded. He is serving on a mission for our religious faith in that area. His Mission President had already organized an emergency plan in case of any disaster happens. Our son Robbie has a 72 hour kit and other emergency essentials as instructed by the Mission President, so we're certain he's okay. My wife sent him an email, in case he needed to reach us for anything. as they say, no news is good news.

The customers son Mike stopped by. He said he really liked how the mural was looking. I'm sure he'll pass this on to his dad. He talked about how it seemed to add to the productive and creative atmosphere. I'm certain it does and I wish we could find a way to measure this phenomenon. The mural is inside a machine shop. A very clean machine shop. In this building, you won't find grease all over the place. All the metal carving lathes use a synthetic lubricant which is much cleaner. You will find an occasional fingerprint from employees touching the murals wet paint, on walls, doors, water dispensers and mouse pads, but even the custodial employees do a pretty good job of cleaning it up. I will go through the building after the mural is finished and clean up or touch up these areas where I need to as a professional courtesy.

When I showed up to work, I immediately saw how to fix an area which was bugging me in the mural. Once I solved the problem, the rest of the painting began to relax and colors started to harmonize together. All along, I had felt the area of pine trees at the base of Roberts Bench and Roberts Point, were too dark, too busy and something made me feel uncomfortable when I looked at the area. The colors were not atmospheric. They felt dark and smokey. I got out a big paintbrush, grouped several pine trees together in larger masses and warmed up the trees in the right places. Suddenly, everything started to fall into place as if this was the missing piece to the puzzle. Now I know with more certainty how to finish the mural. If there is an overall color tone, it appears to be an olive green, rustic golden hue. it almost has a jewel-like quality about it --- a good sign we're on the right track!

When A Painting Begins To Work It's Like Running A Marathon and Taking First Place At The Finish Line

If you have been following the blog posts, you know I have been struggling in the area surrounding the center of interest which is Roberts Point and the area below Roberts Bench. It seemed I continued to struggle on it up until the last couple hours of my working day. More intense and lighter colors were added just in the right places. Edges were softened. Detail was added or simplified in areas. At times, over the past few weeks on this project, I felt like giving up, but I knew I couldn't. Some days, I came home discouraged and frustrated. This morning, I almost didn't show up at work, because I felt a little sick like I could puke, but I came to work and got my second wind on the project. The mural is getting fun again and no longer a drudgery. By the end of the day, I felt good. I must have been smiling. People smiled at me. Perhaps my happiness shown on my face. Several employees stopped and made positive comments. They're liking the mural a lot! I'm happy. The client who hired me told me that the most important thing about the mural projects in the three buildings was that the employees must be happy. Well, there you go. I did it!

A lot is riding on the project for me to pull through on it. I can't afford to throw in the towel. I'm the kind of person who sticks to it until it is right anyway. I don't like to have nightmares about the things I create.

Back At It Again

Last Friday, the client asked me to clean up by removing the masking, my paint and brushes, ladders and supplies from the mural areas in both buildings. He was hosting VIP's the following Saturday morning. This morning, we only replaced some of the masking then got to painting. It was really weird to be able to look through the windows again. The Shop Manager, Jay Reynolds (the eagle and 'Jay Bird' guy) wants to get approval to paint over all the windows except his office window which has a nice wood veneer blind. I'm all for painting over the windows, but we'll have to prime it first so no light can come through, otherwise the effect will not be consistent with the rest.

As you can see by the pictures, we painted out the last eagle that we had blocked in (and the 'Jay Bird'), replacing it with a smaller, more proportionate and less obnoxious looking bird of prey. We didn't intend to leave the jay bird in. The whole thing was meant as a joke for Jay. We don't want the mural to be corny or silly, especially if I want to attract potential customers.

On the way to work this morning, Karen and I saw a very large Golden Eagle sitting on top of a power line pole. It was the biggest bird of prey we had ever seen! My best guess is that it stood about 3 feet plus from head to tail! Along this route, we will occasionally spot Ospreys, Red Hawks, Vulture Hawks, saw a Bald Eagle once, and lots of Ravens, Sea Gulls and other smaller bird variety. The birds of prey are usually seen sitting on a power line pole looking for rodents. We stopped below the bird and got out to view it. The bird just sat on top of the pole and didn't move. It was not threatened by us. If you had big, strong, sharp talons, would you be afraid? I called up to it by attempting my best eagle imitation, which wasn't very good. The eagle just looked down at us like it was saying, "Don't annoy me or I'll eat you!" There were no other birds around---wonder why? We decided that since the eagle was so big, it probably at the other birds, plus a few rodents!

Back to the mural...
We are now getting more serious about adding detail. In my mind, I have divided the mural into five sections. Each day, our goal is to nearly finish a section so we can have the mural painted by next weekend.

I Wish Every Painting Day Was A Moose

Last weekend, I blocked in a pair of moose. Today, we gave the moose some good detail. ANyway, I had a lot of fun bringing the moose out so it looked less like just a splotch of paint. I enjoyed depicting this clumsy-looking, yet graceful creature as a spot of interest in the mural.

Growing up in Idaho, my father, my brothers and I would often go on a plein-air painting excursion to West Yellowstone, Montana, Jackson Hole, Wyoming or Island Park, Idaho. Occasionally, we would see moose come out of the woods and into an open clearing off in the distance. Not wanting to miss anything, I would put my paintbrush down and quietly watch the creature move about in it's natural setting. Sometimes, I would take off in my car to a bird refuge west of Rexburg, Idaho to study Great Blue herons, Sandhill Crane, Snowy Egrets, Comorants and other bird variety, yet I never made painting wildlife a career. Nor am I a hunter like many wildlife artists, yet I would sometimes put wildlife in my landscape paintings as an accent or to add a little life. Perhaps I could have been a wildlife artist.

In 2006, I put some waterfowl and a paint pony in the Inteliserv (a former Novatek business) mural . A few months later, I painted an elk and waterfowl in the foreground of a mural I painted for Alcoa, inc. I sent pictures of these two mural jobs to Cabelas the week after finishing the Alcoa project and heard back from Cabelas corporate office about a week later. In 2007, Cabelas hired me to paint five habitat murals for their under construction East Hartford, Connecticut retail store. It would be nice to get another Cabelas job someday.

Tomorrow, I will go shopping for some smaller paint brushes than I have been using so I can finish the animals. I hope to have the entire mural looking more finished by this weekend.

Jay Gets His Eagle (And A Jay Bird)

Had a little fun with the shop manger today. On the first day I started this mural, the shop manager noticed I was on the job and headed towards me from about 100 feet away. On his face I read what he was going to ask me, "Are you going to put an eagle in the mural?". By the time he came up to me, I answered what I knew was on his mind before the words came out of his mouth, "Yes." I said, "I plan on painting an eagle somewhere in the mural". Satisfied, and without saying a word, the shop manager, who's name is Jay, walked away happy.

The next day, I laid out the mural in charcoal. Along with the layout, I drew an eagle next to the managers office window and wrote the words "Jay Bird" next to the eagle. Everyone thought that was a pretty funny joke.

As the mural progressed, Jay would periodically ask me If I was still planning on putting the eagle in. I would tease him back and say "Of course! And each time you bug me about it, there will be one less eagle feather on the eagle. It really will be a bald eagle!"

I planned to paint and eagle soaring in the sky and thought it would be a fun joke to replace eagle I drew in charcoal with a Stellars Blue Jay. My original plan was to paint a blue jay sitting in a tree next to Jay's window.

Well, today I finally got in the mood to paint in the eagle. The eagle looked good and appeared to be diving for it's prey with sharp talons ready to grip it with a deadly clutch.

When Jay came out of his office and saw the eagle, he was pleased, yet he commented, "It looks like the eagle is after it's prey. You should have it chasing another bird. Maybe a bird that's sitting in the top of a tree." He then went back into his office. While he was at his desk, I had a fun idea. I painted a bird next to the eagle, frantically trying to get away. Jay has a son who also works in the building. He saw the eagle and said he liked it. He knew his dad would be pleased. I asked him if he knew what kind of bird was flying next to the eagle. He said he didn't know, so when I said "Why, it's a Jay bird, a Stellars Blue Jay!", you should have seen the grin that formed on his face.

The Mural Is About 80% Complete

Along with solving areas which were difficult to design, I have to be concerned about the balance of light and dark. I have felt some of the areas have been too dark for the clients taste, so today, I pulled out some more patches of light, warmed some areas which will remain on the darker side for contrast, simplified some areas and changed a tree color. Overall, the mural is beginning to work well, so now it's the marathon to the finish.

I also added a bull and cow moose. The cow is okay where it is at, but after blocking in the moose, I realize now that proportion wise, the bull is too small, especially compared to the rocky mountain goat ram at the base of the falls. I could let it go, but the mural will be viewed by some VIP's. I have to be accurate and professional. Some of the employees say not to change it, but as for my gut feeling and for clear a conscience I will change it to the proper scale. After all, I am a professional and someone would eventually come along and notice it wasn't right.

The Struggle Paid Off

We had a really good day painting. At first this morning, I was still unsure as to how to completely resolve the design challenges in the Point area. I kind of knew, but was at first too timid about it. I called my younger brother Marty on my cell and asked him to come for a critique. After the call, I got real bold and put down rich broad shades of a reddish-golden hue, which finally made the Point sing with morning light. Thirty minutes later Marty came by. He liked what I had been doing and said, "Just finish it". I feel more relaxed about the mural now that this challenge has been overcome. Whew!

Quickdraw Mc Ricks

Last weekend, my wife Sammee and I stopped at Deseret Industries ( a thrift store). I was looking for a mans apron. All they had in mens was an apron which looked like Woody, a character in the animated movie, "Toy Story". You know, I just might be the fastest mural painter in the West!

The line of Aspen trees along the cliff ridge behind the falls is getting the look & feel I have been shooting for. Roberts Point is looking better and the streaks of light I added near the falls looks just about right.

Refresh

The weekend of February 18-19th, my wife "Sammee" and I took a breather. We spent the weekend in downtown Salt Lake. She did genealogical research, while I toured Temple Square and photographed cityscapes for paintings. While relaxing in the Marriott Hotel, I believe I further came to a better solution to the design problems of Roberts Point. This coming week, I may try to apply what I learned to resolve the design eye sore. It is important that we not leave an uncomfortable big dark area. The solution calls for softer colors and values plus continue to simplify the area. The idea came from the way an artist painted the World Room Mural for the Salt Lake Temple.

In the early years of the Restored Church, talented LDS (Mormon) artists were called on missions to study plein-air painting in France with the French Masters. They would return to Salt Lake from their missionary assignment 2-3 years after their artistic studies began, to paint temple murals. There is some really nice painting on the walls of the Salt Lake Temple interior. I hope the Lord will give me the opportunity to paint a temple mural someday. It would be a humbling and richly creative spiritual experience. I would feel it a sacred honor if I am called upon by the church to fulfill such an assignment.

Pulling Through

Although some areas of the mural have been very challenging --- even frustrating, we are now making greater progress. Most of the major challenges have been in the way of structural obstacles on the wall. First, we had to deal with redesigning the waterfall area because of double doors with windows. Second, and most frustrating, has been the structural I-beam upright which interferes with Roberts Point. Now, most of this is behind us and I don't anticipate another major structural obstacle --- cross your fingers!

Other minor challenges include interruptions by onlookers wanting to talk or ask questions, thus cutting down on my days productivity. Some argue about the way I approach the painting of the project. Basically, they can get a little impatient, thinking that an easier or more logical approach would be to paint by number. That may be, but it would look like a paint by number. I want my mural work to not only fulfill the assignment of the client, but also to have an edge of museum quality, evokes an emotional response, is inspirational and uplifting, which requires greater artistic effort and goes beyond mere surface technique. Most of the engineers at this mural project don't understand the painting processes of my mental AND heartfelt efforts, but they do appreciate the end result. Good art reaches beyond a just visual experience. Good art, in my humble opinion, stirs a heartfelt emotional response. To accomplish this, I must reach beyond logic and somehow tap into emotional and spiritual stimulation.

Todays Progress

February 16, 2011.
Roberts Bench got a rework. We enlarged the basic shape by about 15% and gave it better form. I am much happier with it now. The Point (pointed peak to the left of the bench) is still giving me heck. The point will also get a makeover before we are finished with the project. Right now, it is just too busy. Simplify, simplify, but the challenge of the beam is a concern. When I do a larger scale mural, for example; 25 feet by 150 feet, The vertical supports, conduit or almost any 3-D object, are not too much of a challenge. Where this mural is a smaller, the shapes are all smaller, making the supports more of a challenge to paint around.

The trees in the area to the right fourth section are starting to show a little more form than just flat patterns. The tree portion of the mural will probably be painted quicker than the rest of the scene.

On a funny note... One of the employees where I'm painting the mural almost got his face painted! No, I don't do that kind of thing. I don't have body paints anyway, but as I was painting on double doors at about my eye level, the man came barreling through without thinking I might be on the other side. The brush was just inches away from his face!

Challenges Can Lead To Better Solutions

Today we reworked Roberts Point in the face of a design challenge. The challenge; Make it look interesting in spite of obstacles. The obstacle; two iron upright supports which go right through the middle of the granite form.

How are we solving the problem?

We added large masses of snow patches to help simplify the area. As we refine the snow, some of it will be in sunlight, some in shadow.

Midway up the cliff and to it's right side, the peak will have a large portion of this area bathed in warm sunlight. We will also bring the lighter olive green grasses up into this area, to avoid a too dull grey and barren look. Also tomorrow, we plan to start working on the foreground and trees if we have time.

More Naturalistic Rock Cliff and Waterfall Area

I had been a little frustrated with this mural around the area of the waterfall and rock cliffs. Today however, we worked out all the things that bugging me about it. Before we had too many colors and the design rhythm in the rocks was too much the same, same, same. Now we have more natural looking shapes and they are blocked in with nice design rhythm. The neutral colors are much better. Now the stage is almost set to paint slivers of sunlight skittering across the top portion of the cliffs. On the staircase of cliffs behind the Waterfall, we added some alpine growth, bringing larger masses of some of this growth to it's base behind the line of aspen trees bathed in light. The large mass of trees grouped together kept the area from getting too busy and will add nice contrast to the aspen trees in front. Tomorrow, we'll add more dimension and form to this area and work on Roberts Point a little. Once we get the two main peaks and the waterfall area working well, the rest of the mural is basically just trees and rocks and should go much faster.

February 4th; Back to work on the MC Print Mural

We will be working on the MC Print Mural in the other building (the old MC Print Building) all next week. We were there painting today. We plan to be back on the Mountain Vista Mural the first Monday of the third week in February. See you then. Meanwhile, click on the www.novatekmcprintmural.blogspot.com link to check out how this project is coming along.

What Goes Around...

My wife Karen was sick yesterday and went to the Emergency room at Payson Hospital. It turned out she had what they call an Esophageal Spasm. Today I feel sick to the stomach, but I'm not going to the hospital. I just feel blaaa! Perhaps I caught some flu bug from my neighbor who is very sick with the flu at the moment. I hope it is just an acidic stomach and not a virus of some sort. In spite of how I felt, I got a lot accomplished on the Mountain Vista mural.

An Eventful And Stressful Day!

I took the bus to the project site this morning so my wife Karen could take the truck to work (We currently only have one vehicle between us). Karen needed to leave early for work and from work. I also got on the bus early AND IT WAS VERY COLD this morning. Shiver, BRRRRRR! I had a lot on my plate to accomplish today.

Things were going real good. I had begun to resolve some design issues I had in the rock wall area. Having the windows in the double doors created a real headache to design around and left some strong annoying diagonals---Bad design trap you want to always avoid. I played around with some fun rock cliff shapes which now looks much better. Turned out, he windows I guess were a good thing. They forced me to come up with a better design solution in this area than even on the original sketch.

Just when I was really in the painting groove, my wife called about noon, informing me she was on the way to the hospital. She was having some extreme pain in her esophagus and upper chest area. Since I took the bus, I had no way to get to the emergency room quickly, but I managed to find a ride about 30 minutes later from one of the employees who happened to be clocking out.

Before I left, I called a good neighbor (my home teacher) in Payson, Utah where we live, who said he'd check in on her. By the time I got there, Karen was just going in for a CAT SCAN. They were concerned that she might have had something like a Herniated Esophagus, but it turned out to be some sort of severe spasm in the Esophagus area, brought on by indigestion---not as serious, yet a concern. She went home about 2 hours later and was doing okay, so I went back to work.

When I returned, I noticed that someone had smeared some wet oil paint on the white wall at the bottom of a stairwell area. It was pretty obvious that someone carelessly forgot the paint was still wet!---(I use Classic Artist OILS). The individual got paint on his/her hand and wiped it off on the wall!

When I started the project, I put up caution signs on both sides by each door window, to watch their hands and shirt or coat sleeves as they pass through the door way. I finally remedied the situation by hanging rags on the door handles. No excuses now. I'm not worried about the mural getting smeared so much. I can fix that easy enough. I just don't want anyone to get paint on their clothes or leave paint fingerprints all over the building.

Mountain Vista Mural Starting To Get Fun

Although I paint a mural very much like how I would approach my easel painting, I sometimes get a little frustrated when It doesn't seem to go as fast. At times, it does feel a little overwhelming on a project larger and taller than eight or ten feet, but when color harmony, design and values start to pull together as a balanced unit, the feeling of more than you can handle begins to subside. Someone asked me today how the project was coming. I responded with, "Everything still appears to be in place and going in the right direction."

I actually covered about 32 feet of the foreground area, while modeling a few trees to the right as well as the rock cliff and a little on the waterfall. A good day in spite of the few hours spent. I had a doctor appointment this morning.

January 31st, Refining of Stewart Falls and Roberts Bench Area

Today we painted mainly in the Stewart Falls and Roberts Bench area. Although we are still in the MIDDLE VALUE STAGE (Step 5) and we will be for the next few days ahead, we went ahead and defined the distant tree line, some snow patches on Roberts Bench and the waterfall using lighter and darker values than the norm for this stage. Each of the steps in the painting process are pretty hard and fast rules and this method has been proven true by master painters for hundreds of years. If you cheat a little on the rules, you have to know when you can. Many years experience lets you know how and when it's okay to fudge the rules.

While working today, I met an interesting and important individual who works for Novatek kind of on the outside. He complimented me on my mural work. It is nice to know my work actually is appreciated by someone. It makes me feel like what I do has some value.

SKY AND MOUNTAINS TAKING SHAPE

We now have the beginnings of good shapes and colors in the sky and on the mountain peaks. Some of the onlookers WOWed and said it looked amazing when I just blocked in a simple turpentine wash of diverse foundation colors. It made me chuckle a little, but now I think they are beginning to realize there is much more to come, more work to do until it looks really good. I had a fun productive day working up on the scaffolding, but my back is a little soar.

On the peak I call Roberts Point, I am changing some of the patterns and planes of it's shape by adding different snow patterns and by getting rid of too many diagonals, replacing the planes with more leveled slopes. 

Everyone Is Happy To See The Clouds

When I painted the cream colored tone in the sky area, the employees started asking if it represented a smoggy day with a temperature inversion. I scumbled thin washes of semi-transparent whitish and cerulean blue tones over the creamy sky which now is beginning to have the effect I desired. The creamy tone is showing through a little. I was very pleased with the result. The sky is still a long shot from being finished. There will be many layers of color, value and patterns yet to accomplish. Remember, on a scale like this, I have to cover very big areas in a days time. I can't always do it all in one setting. I will likely continue to make several adjustments in the sky even as I paint on other areas of the mural. Painting is like a delicate balancing act, adjusting and balancing design principles and color theory until everything is in place.

It was a good day, in spite of the few hours I spent. I had to pay a traffic fine in the morning and leave a little earlier in the afternoon than I had hoped because my son needed to borrow the truck to fix his car. Jay Reynolds, the Shop Manager didn't even loose an eagle feather. Amazing!. He might just get his eagle after all.

The joke was on me.

Jay Reynolds, the Shop Manager asked me to put a bald eagle in the mural. He makes the same request every mural I do for the Novatek client. The first day on the job site, I saw Jay heading towards me. The expression on his face said, "Will I get an eagle?" I liked the idea and plan to paint one in the sky to the left Roberts Point. I joked with him today that if he harasses me too much, there will be one less feather for each time he bugs me about it.

One of the employees pulled a good one on me today. Across from the mural wall, I apparently got a little paint on the side wall of a metal carving lathe. A note taped next to the paint flick read, " Silly Artist, not on this wall, the other wall!" Instead of teasing them, I guess I better keep my mouth shut.

Painting In The Sky

Today is Saturday, January 22nd. I didn't work on the mural on Friday. Instead, I had a doctor appointment so I worked on the sky today. Soon, you will see beautiful cloud shapes rather than a yellow smoggy sky. As I paint in the "Blue Sky Holes", the sky is beginning to make more sense. The client liked the sky in my concept sketch and asked that a put a similar sky in the MC Print Mural. Whatever he says is what goes. After all, he's the one who commissioned the work and writes the check.

Mural Blocked In and Ready To Get Serious!

On Friday, January 21st, I will begin to get serious with the design and color harmonies, values, color temperature. The large picture plane is covered in a multicolor turpentine wash, leaving no white areas ( except a few minor spots in the sky area , OOPS! ). After taping down a 4 ply plastic to better keep paint off the floor, I will start by adding clouds and  bluish colored "sky holes" to add interest to the sky. Next, I will begin to define and refine the colors and details in other areas. I want this mural project to be my best ever. I plan to invite key people from the LDS Church Temple Design Committee to witness the project when it is complete. They are following it online. One of my very personal goals is to paint murals in the beautiful LDS temples. God gave me a remarkable gift. I would like to give some of it back to His great cause.