The Finished Mural!

Here she is in all her glory! After a full of week of painting and sweating it's finally done.


To pick up where my last post left off, you can see that we continued to add one color at a time then stand back and see the results.



Quite a few friends stopped by to help, which was great and of course very appreciated. It made the work pass by much more quickly and everyone did a great job.



Even Trace Cherokee of Seth Martin & Friends lent a hand!


One of the most unexpected aspects of working on this project was all the people who showed support as they passed by. People yelled out compliments, offered to help, honked, and stopped to chat for a bit about the mural. I never would have guessed that so many people would want to express how much they liked the design. And not just complete strangers, but tons of people I knew stopped by as well. Kyle had a theory that if we stayed there long enough we would see everybody we knew in Charleston which wasn't far from the truth. Even people I literally hadn't seen in over ten years stopped by to check it out. I was also interviewed by the local paper and a couple news stations.


We ended up adding the background color last and it really brought the whole piece together. The off-white I picked turned out to be a little too pristine and when it was brushed over the primer it didn't seem to make any sort of difference, so I cautiously decided to mix some yellow in and make a color closer to what I had in mind. I knew I wanted more of a cream color, but I was worried about ruining a $30 gallon of paint.


I would say the toughest obstacle we had to face during the whole process was the heat. It really got to me a few times, and I started to get concerned about things like heatstroke. I figured it was a small possibility, but still something I shouldn't dismiss altogether.


This was an experience unlike anything else I've ever done and I can only hope that this mural will be a part of Charleston for a long, long time.

I need to take some time to thank the people without whom this project wouldn't have been even remotely possible. First, Ric Cavender and East End Main Street for creating opportunities like this for Charleston artists. Second, Keeley and Jon Steele, owners of the Bluegrass Kitchen who not only let me paint giant cartoon characters on the side of their building but made sure I had plenty of free food while I did it. My uncle Harlan, who lent me a much sought-after projector which was the missing link of this project for quite a while. All my friends, family, and the passers by who stopped by to show their support. Dave and Carrie, who gave up their weekend to paint in the blistering heat, and my girlfriend Hillary who picked up a paintbrush on the weekend and stopped by nearly everyday after work to check on how things were going.

But most of all, a huge thanks to my dad and best friend Kyle, who not only worked on this project all week but worked extremely hard. Without them this would not have happened, period. None of us are strangers to painting and planning, but they had the foresight, quick thinking, attitude, and experience a project like this requires. Most importantly, though, was their willingness to put their own lives on hold and offer up a whole week of hard work. There are no two people on the planet I would trust more to help me with something like this, so thanks!