Mural Origin

Today was the first day on the wall in Trenton, NC. The first day is always the most nerve racking. I have looked at this picture for a year and now it all comes down to the wall, you and the graphite drawing that will help guide the paint flow.

I met with Gypsy, Willow, Carol Ann and opened the day with prayer. We asked for guidance of hands, paint, ladders, and safety. We received so much more. Today was the beginning of a most creative moment. This painting will depict A. L. Andrews, a man who was instrumental in starting the holiness church in Trenton. He is a humble man, who sits on the pew opposite ours in our church. He seldom speaks above a whisper, but when he prays, I believe God listens.

I met his daughter, Diane, one day and she allowed me to draw some of her grandchildren for a card project for a non-profit organization in Yucaipa, CA. She and her husband invited my family over to see their garden since I am also interested in growing things. We walked the garden and talked. When we went back into their home, she showed me a picture of her father on a creek bank by the Trenton River. This photograph just was amazing, the palette was simple, yet the light seemed to dance all around the picture. I asked her if I could do a painting of it and she graciously gave me permission. This is how it all began.

Last summer I finished my first mural for Willow Faye Stroud. It was a fantasy mural which was created by putting the brush in your hand and letting the paint just ooze out a picture. Needless to say it was my first mural and the second one to be painted in Trenton, NC.

Willow also helped me connect with Kinston, NC. We stopped in for coffee one day at "The Picnic Basket" and saw nothing but blank walls all around the quaint tables located in a very old building. We started to talk to the owners, and 3 months later I was painting their farm on the walls of their restaurant. Two very large walls 16 x 40 feet in diameter. In 2009 this restaurant won "Best View In A Restaurant", which just tickled me....my second mural.

Well, now I have started the third mural, 1st day, drawing the creek bank, and locating the right position or A.L. as he sat by the creek with a cane pole in his hand, hoping for luck with the fishes that be! He looks angelic, yet purposeful. This mural will welcome beach travelers who pass through Trenton and stop at the one light there in the downtown area. All travelers will be able to look right and see someone sitting by the bank of the Trent River enjoying life.

My husband and I moved here 3 years ago, from CA. Talk about culture shock, I didn't exactly know what to do with myself for a year. My husband's step father passed away with cancer, and "Grandma" was living with us as we were in the middle of building a home near Trenton.

Now three years later, we have met so many wonderful people, who live near by and participate in our lives, as we do in theirs. Willow is the person who helped get this mural approved by the Beautification Committee, which she is chairman of. She had to have the billboard, which had been hiding this wall removed, and that took almost a year after many meetings, due to the condition of the billboard and then the hiring of the person to remove it. She keep at it, and last week I met with the Beautification Committee with the proposed costs and layout of the mural and it was passed. I met some wonderful people there that night. I felt like the town had just opened it's arms for this mural to continue their goal of making it welcome and full of art. The Blackwells were part of the committee and I immediately fell in friendship with the both of them. So I am excited about getting past the cashier stage of friendship with them. It will be fun to drive down Jones Street in Trenton and look to my right and see their lovely hundred+ year old house and spot them on the porch having morning coffee and watching them continue to modify and change their home into a beautiful remembrance of history in our small town.

So on this first day I washed the wall with my husbands help. He took all the chances by hooking up the hose (just in case there was a snake), and helped me set up the scaffolding before he left to continue his work at home. Then I went to have prayer with Willow, Gypsy, Carol Ann at Gypsy's Place on Jones Street, to ask for guidance. When I left the gift shop "Red Willows" I began to remember how I got here and how I met each of them. Willow owns Red Willows and in my first week in Trenton I strolled into her unopened shop through the back door and met "Ms. Willow Faye". I felt like she just stepped onto the Battery in Charleston, South Carolina. This was a lady of high standing in the community and my only comparison was my early womanhood in Charleston, SC and how the ladies wore handkerchiefs and white gloves as they walked in downtown Charleston buying flowers from the "Flower Ladies" who stood on the corners after Sunday church. This was the kind of lady, Willow is, and is still today. A person with an infectious laugh, gleaming blue eyes and red hair. She is truly one of a kind. Now, back to the first day, now that you have an idea of who deals with me and befriends me on a daily basis. I left the shop, walked down the street and wondered if I could do this picture justice on a concrete wall. Well that is to be determined as I pick up the brush again tomorrow with my helper "Ms. Wyatt". She is a beginning artist, just finished her first year in art at the local high school. She too is a Carolinian by birth and just as sweet as sugar...as they say here. They even call people "Sug", it sounds so endearing and I love it when I get called "Sug" by Gwen, I talk more about here later. So today, I washed, blocked in the hat, face, shoulders and started on the legs of Mr. A.L. I stood on the scaffolding and used cheap acrylic to get the shadows on the face (which will be painted over with Severe Weather paint bought at Lowe's "Valspar".) So as I stood there all these words flew through my head going back and forth in the 3 years in no particular order just memories of how in the world did I get here and how much I am enjoying the freedom of painting. On the way to the wall I saw a turtle start across the road and waiting slowly for him to be safe, then I saw a deer turn his white tail up and run like the wind stirring dust in all directions as I passed A.L.'s church and I had to smile.....just a beginning to a wonderful day full of possibility and creativity. So join with me and know I am going to share whatever goes through my head as I try and paint this wonderful picture with light, love and hope for all those who may glimpse it as they pass through our little town "Trenton". Talk to you soon!