Preparing the Canvas - Part 2

Now to reveal the newly painted wall! We ended up applying two coats of Zinsser WaterTite, oil-based waterproofing paint. The first coat was applied with a large brush, and the second coat with a heavy nap roller.

Here is the newly painted wall with the awful, old, dark brown color still on the floor...



And after application of two coats of Light Rattan, Behr brand, 1-part epoxy paint to the floor...




I'm not sure about anyone else, but when I see this much white space, I feel the need to paint on it. So I decided to celebrate some of Milwaukee's history by painting a vintage Harley Davidson design in this space. I thought it might be nice to paint some sepia tone images, to give the impression that the new paintings might have been there a while. I also do not want to put anything too personal on the wall that might deter future home buyers.

I decided to paint an old Harley Davidson board racer image as well as a vintage bar and shield logo on the South wall of the basement. This will be used as a main display wall in our studio space. It will give us something to ponder while creating new pieces of art.

Here are the two images we plan on painting.....





We plan on painting the board racer on the right half of the south wall as large as we can. Then we will paint the bar and shield logo to the left of the racer as large as possible. The Nova paint for this project arrived this afternoon, so next up it is time to project the art on the wall.



I recently added 16 recessed lights in the basement but that is another story for another day. For now, I will focus on the mural painting......until then....

Preparing the Canvas - Part 1

Did you ever have one of those projects that required you to take 30 steps backwards before you can begin? Let me try to explain my current project and progress addressing it.

The reason I started this blog in the first place, was to describe how I intended to build a studio space in my home. Back in 2009 I purchased a smaller ranch house and needed to create a space in it where I could set up easels and such. I use one of the three bedrooms as a home office space but still needed an area where I could break out the oil paints and messy stuff. The basement seemed to provide the most logical solution.

However, the basement had several "issues" that needed to be addressed before I could feel really motivated to do creative work down there. First off, the two windows on the South side of the house appeared to have had some leaking problems over the years. Over time, the resulting moisture issues created the dreaded efflorescence problem on the painted walls. As I looked around, this was only one of the many problems that needed to be addressed before a studio set-up could even be considered.

The first step was to correct the leaky window problem. I decided to replace the old swing-open windows with more secure and efficient glass block windows. That meant tearing out the old windows as well as replacing the "too shallow" window wells outside.

Here are some before and after shots of the replacement process.

The old window....



And the new glass block window...




The old window well, which was too shallow and allowed rain to drain into the basement window...



The new window well, which is about 8 inches deeper than the originals....



Next up was how to fix the paint damage on the South wall. The leaking water and moisture had caused the paint to blister and turn nasty over time. I decided I was going to have to remove the damaged areas and repaint using masonry waterproofing paint. This in itself presents several more problems. If I grind or sand the wall, the basement and most of the house will be covered in dust! Do I use oil based waterproofer or latex based? If the oil based type is selected and used, how much odor will it give off?

Here is a couple photos of the moisture damage...





To prevent the inevitable dust storm, it was neccessary to build a plastic dust retaining wall so I could catch most of the mess that would be created by grinding and sanding. So, I framed up a section about 6 feet from the wall to be painted and masked it off with thin plastic sheeting. I also framed in a small door area for access....





Ok, after much grinding and sanding with a belt sander, the nasty stuff is gone. In the photo below, I am rinsing the acid etching liquid off the wall with water in preparation for the waterproofing paint. I made the decision to use Zinsser brand oil based water proofing paint. The instruction suggest using a brush for the first coat and rolling the second coat with a thick nap roller cover.

here is the mess....





Next up, I will reveal the newly painted wall...and the additional plans I have for it!

Mural Themes, They Pick You! Part 2

To continue Part 2 of my post on mural themes, I would like to include a couple more that were quite memorable for me. One of the mural projects brought several major changes to my life, the other was simply an amazing experience.

The first mural project was a Walldog event held in Pontiac, Il during the last weekend in June of 2009. My friends Bill and Jane Diaz along with the City of Pontiac, planned and organized the "Chief City Runs with the Dogs" event. At this Walldog Meet, we were scheduled to paint 18 mural in a span of 4 days. I was asked to be a project leader for one of the murals to be painted during this event. For more on the Pontiac event, see link below...

www.letterville.com/meets/chiefcity/index.html

Early in 2009 I was given my mural subject and asked to develop a mural design concept for it. The subject matter for my mural was the Rodino Square service station and store. The Rodino Square was a popular stop along the original Route 66. It was a family owned and run business that was built up by selling vegetables door to door out of a Model T truck. I decided to work up something in an Art Nouveau style since that would have been in style near the time the family started the business. I worked up a concept for the mural and sent it down for approval. After a few minor changes, I went ahead and finished the final artwork.

All that was left to do was pack up all my supplies right before the event and head down to Pontiac. Those plans were nearly cancelled at the last minute. Days before I was to head to Pontiac, a tragedy struck our family. My Dad had an Aneurysm rupture and had to be airlifted in order to receive emergency surgery. He was only given a 50% chance of survival due to his age and the severity of the surgery. He did survive the surgery but had to be put into a medically induced coma for a week to heal after the surgery.

The week he was to be in the coma recovering was the same week I was scheduled to be painting the mural in Pontiac. During all this I notified those organizing the event and explained the situation to them. They were very supportive and told me that they could find someone to take over the mural project if need be. I spoke with family and friends and together we decided it might be better for me to carry on with the Walldog event as planned. One of my letterville.com friends recommended that I go to the event, paint the best mural I could and then dedicate it to my Dad.

With a heavy heart I did go to the Walldog Meet and followed my friend's advice. It was very comforting to be around a large group of friends who supported me during this difficult time. The main reason I decided to go to the event was that my Dad would have wanted me to be there instead of sitting around a hospital. It's hard to explain the level of Fellowship one experiences at a Walldog event. It's like no other gathering that I can think of!

Here is the Art Concept for the Rodino Square Mural....




While painting one of the Model T cars on this project an idea came to me as to how I could dedicate this mural to my Father. I remember my Dad telling me stories about some of the old cars he had when he was young. One of which looked quite similar to the one on the mural. I decided to paint my Dad's initials and birth year on the license plates of the Model T. That way it had a lot of meaning to me and didn't take away from the original concept.






The completed mural....




The next project is from the last Walldog event that I was involved with. This past summer I was asked to be a Project Leader for the Dog Gone Dandy event that was held in Danville, Il on August 4-7th, 2010. Originally the host and planners of the event asked if I would be interested in painting a mural honoring the celebrities that called Danville home. As plans developed, they eventually asked me to Lead the Balloon Classic project, which celebrated the large hot air balloon event that Danville hosted for many years. Bright colorful hot air balloons would be a great theme to work with, sign me up!

As soon as the project was presented to me, I had the idea that it would be nice to arrange a ride in a hot air balloon for "research" purposes! I started looking into local hot air balloon ride services, and found out that it would be about $900 for the three of us to go up. That would be myself, my significant other, and her 14 year old daughter. I went to work on the mural design and put the ride on the back burner.

I was given a rather huge wall for the Balloon mural and decided I better try and utilize as much of the space as I could. Then again I only have four days to complete the mural and have no idea how much help I would have? The wall I was to paint was a red brick corner of a parking ramp near the main street area of downtown Danville. It was about 29 feet wide and 40 feet tall. Here is the "canvas" I had to work with...



And here is the concept I presented to the organizers of the event....




We then commenced on the monumental task at hand.....






Soon after we started on the project a very nice lady named Wendy walked up and asked if we might be interested in taking a hot air balloon ride? Are you kidding....we'd love to!!! She explained that her friend was a local hot air balloon pilot and if the weather was decent they would take us up very early on Saturday morning. And she also wondered if her and her friend could help with the mural. I thought I had won the lottery or something!

The Friday night before our flight, the balloon pilot caught up with me and mentioned that her good friend was also going to take up his balloon so my fiance's daughter could go up in his balloon and well as one other person. Well, I'm here to say we were up the next morning and our host family drove us out to the launch site. The weather was looking good, we just had to wait for the light ground fog to burn off and we would be ready to load and go.




There was a big crew on hand so we were told to just take photos and enjoy ourselves. The whole process of a balloon launch was very interesting to watch. But the best part was the actual launch and ride......simply amazing!!!!
















Many thanks go out to our pilot Donna Carlton-Vish and her husband Don for taking us on this incredible flight in her balloon...Sunny Side Up.

I also need to thank the crew that pitched in and helped complete the mural. We managed to squeeze in a hot balloon ride and complete this huge mural in just 3 and a half days. You might notice in the photo below that I decided to include the balloons that we took our ride in on the finished Balloon Classic Mural!

I am truly grateful that this mural theme came my way and decided I was the right person for the job....I can only imagine what might be up next?