Have you seen what Urban Alley and a bunch of local artists are doing downtown? If not, check out their Facebook page to get caught up, and to see what a bunch of Norman artists have been creating for the community.
I was super stoked to be able to participate in this initiative, and will definitely continue to do more in the future! You can see some images of what I came up with below.
For the community you say? It’s just street art… in an alley… Well, I can’t tell you how many people stopped by to tell me how much they LOVE what is happening. I’m not just talking about 2nd Friday Art Walk patrons on the first night, but later on while I was finishing up, random people who now choose to walk down the alley on the reg, on the way to work, or their lunch break, or just for the hell of it, stopped to tell me how much they enjoy the alley. It’s really pretty kick ass.
Here’s what I learned:
- Work with the surface you are trying to paint on, not against it. The graphic images probably weren’t the best choice for this beat up old wall, but fuck it, I’m happy with how it turned out anyway.
- Everyone loves murals. I guess I kinda knew this before, but I was really surprised at how many people stopped to talk to me about it, and the alley in general.
- Plan, plan, plan. Yeah.. I’m not much of a planner most of the time. Going into this one, all I really knew was that I was going to do black & white, and there was mostly likely going to be an eyeball in there somewhere (duh). It definitely would have gone much faster and more smoothly if I would have at least planned a teensy bit.
- You can never have too many brushes on hand when you are painting a mural.
- Don’t hop in your van and drive off when there is an uncovered bowl of black paint in the back.
Welp, that’s about it folks. We would LOVE LOVE LOVE to paint more murals! Got something in mind? Give us a hollah!