• artsy fartsy,  crafts gone wrong,  painting,  Shop Talk,  The Desert

    How to Overthink a Mural

    theWALL

    A few weeks ago one of my favorite clients (Rasta Rita) and I were working on their margarita trucks. I’ve been creating renderings so that they can be hand-painted by this really great artist that we all admire. Turns out that really great artist is booked up and getting harder and harder to hire these days. You know where I’m going with this… when Mario, my boss at Rasta Rita shared his struggles, I casually suggested that Rasta Rita hire me to paint their margarita trucks. What a dream job right? I’ve always wanted to paint a taco truck, a margarita truck would even be MORE fun!

    Except I don’t really have any experience in painting automobiles. I think the closest I’ve gotten to painting on a metal surface like a truck is painting a refrigerator red and maybe some bunnies on fingernails. It would be a total learning curve but where there’s a will there’s a way, right? Mario was intrigued but not quite ready to take a chance on a newbie with no proof of skills. Being a whiz at photoshop isn’t exactly the same thing as knowing how to paint a pin-line on a truck, must less a bunch of flowers and words that require the skills of a seasoned sign painter. So he offered me a test. I could paint a mural on their cantina location out in Twentynine Palms (next to Joshua Tree) and if I did a good job, I might be considered for truck painting.

    You’re on, I said!

    And then I proceeded to stress the beep out.

    thePaint

    Give an anxiety-prone artist time and she will use every single minute of it to over-plan and prepare. I watched youtube videos for hours, I pondered paints that can withstand extreme desert weather. I studied bougainvillea leaves and tested out my skills on a canvas, I stressed about expensive paints soaking into porous stucco surfaces and imagined my paint budget sponging away into the wall. I calculated how much gas it would take me to drive to the desert multiple times and how much a hydraulic lift would cost so I could reach the top of the mural wall and not fall to my death…

    In the picture that Mario gave me the wall looked immense. It seemed two stories tall easily. I imagined it would take me a whole week maybe even longer if I had to take breaks from heatstroke. I enlisted Bug to help me because she is quite good at painting and copying anything. And then I planned some more. I planned myself sick.

    The day of the big paint job finally came and as I packed and stressed some more, I found out that the venue had been over-booked. If I was a fast painter I could possibly get the job done before the back-to-back weddings happened but I had no clue how things would go. What if I only got half of the mural done and then some poor bride had to have her wedding backdrop be a wall covered in gray splotches of primer paint. The horror! I didn’t know how long this whole process was going to take. Being under pressure to finish by a certain time was just too much for me to handle. I freaked.

    I called it off. I got cold feet.

    Thankfully this client is totally cool and said I could paint the following five consecutive weekends instead. I had planned to paint during Bug’s spring break but this would good plan B and more importantly, I could take some time off from stress. Sort of.

    so-bug-and-i-took-a-trip-to-Joshua-Tree

    Bug and I decided to take a drive out there anyway just to case the joint and get a better idea of the scope of this project. We didn’t have anything else planned so we might as well have a little desert vaca-day. We’re always up for an adventure. Bring it on!

    its-not-so-big-afterall

    We got the keys and checked out the wall. Guess, what? It’s half the size I had imagined in my head. AND the surface is not as porous as I had feared. My fear level for this project dropped in half. I probably could have knocked it out in two days before the upcoming weddings but it’s just as well. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. I don’t need any Bridezillas suing me for ruining their wedding.

    we-got-this

    I was so relieved.

    bouganvillea-on-stucco

    I also got to check out the famous artist’s version of some bougainvillea that he had painted. I wasn’t completely happy with my version (bottom left) but when I look at his, I don’t think I’m that far off. In fact, I think I can totally rock this job. I need to work on my petal shape a bit but I think I’ve got this.

    We took some pictures and then headed home via the scenic route.

    flowers-grow-in-disturbed-dirt

    I love these desert mallows that grow along the side of the roads in the desert. Bug and I pulled off to take some pictures of them and Bug taught me an interesting fact (she knows all sorts of interesting botany trivia). Desert flowers grow where the dirt is disturbed. That means they grow in the distressed areas, like along a highway. Why do they do this? Probably nature’s last-ditch effort to reproduce before they die out or something like that but I took it as something else. I’ve been a little stressed out lately too and I think I’m a desert flower blooming. Distress can sometimes bring out the best in us.  Of course, it’s not a good idea to be stressed out regularly but when we are, we can look for the beauty. It’s bound to show up somewhere. We just might not see it until it’s over.

    desert-beauty

    And speaking of desert beauty… That’s my Bug, wearing a slip like it’s hot couture.

    back-lit-flowers

    We didn’t spend much time taking photos but we got a few. I do love it out there.

    only-fans

    See you again soon, pretty desert! I will keep you posted on this.

  • artsy fartsy,  corona virus 2020,  crafts gone wrong,  crazy stuff,  Slow Living

    Crazy Pandemic Hobbies: Tiny Milk Carton Houses

    milk-carton-houses-craftscrap

    Lately, I’m into making tiny milk carton houses. It’s a crazy hobby that I don’t see paying off anytime soon. They take forever and the waxy surface of the milk carton makes painting them nearly impossible. It’s also messy. But I am not giving up!!! I have four of them sitting beside me (on the little handy side desk that I McGivered by putting two desks together).  I tinker on them a little bit every day. I have grand plans of creating a whole village and selling it for a thousand bucks but more than likely I’ll just gift them to the family who won’t know what to do with them either.

    milk-carton-houses-madness

    These milk carton houses are not for work. I wish they were but they are not. I’ve used a few for work but the ones I’m working on now are not. They are really just something to keep me from going crazy.

    I also have a postcard hobby which means that I save every piece of chipboard that goes through our house. Chipboard is thin cardboard from cereal boxes and cartons etc. My collection is kind of a problem. My desk looks like a recycling plant and now I’m having issues throwing anything away. My kids save everything for me too because they know I have this hobby. It’s gotten a little out of control.

    an-absolute-mess

    I have dreams of making “an old house in Paris that was covered with vines” out of a cookie box but I don’t know when I’ll get to it. I just work a tiny bit on these houses every day. Day by day by day by day… in between other more lofty chores, of course. It’s slow going and this mess is not going anywhere any time soon. It feels like my own personal pandemic decor. Kinda like how we moved Payam’s desk into the living room and the kids have their own zoom classroom backdrops incorporated into their bedrooms…and it’s a permanent part of our life now. It’s funny the changes we’ve all had to make now that we do everything at home. I’ve always worked at home but this latest recycling craftiness has definitely turned my madness up a notch.

    I hope I finish someday. Kinda like I hope I can see friends again someday…