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.