One of my very first murals was in Opuzen, Croatia in June of 2018 and given the opportunity, I relished the idea of doing a second piece in the small, coastal town.
There was no theme and I was given a choice between a few different walls. Upon first being shown this building, a) I didn't want to touch it with a 10ft pole (a saying which doesn't mean much when you think about mural painting) and b) if I did, I wanted to do something full-height (unlike what I ended up doing). The hurdle for point a) was that there wasn't a better option and I didn't want to be the annoyingly picky and difficult painter. For point b) it was just that there wasn't a set of scaffolding available that would reach the top.
So after a few design iterations, I stumbled upon this idea merely a day or two prior to arriving. When I got there, I remembered what I had loved so much about the town and was happy to paint on any wall that I could. The stress of making something was simmered down to a simple feeling of slight unease that I always get prior to painting and after putting up the scaffolding and figuring out how to get my proportions right, I got to work.
The concept behind the imagery was that there's a deeper history in the building. Maybe not the structure itself, but the inhabitants and their lives, and the town itself. I wanted to create what appeared to be a passageway into that past, with this woman looking inside. Alternatively, she's also looking in on the inhabitants themselves. When the lights are turned on in the window next door, it appears as though she's turning to see what's happening. The scale of the piece was appropriate as you can see it clearly from a distance, and with the perspective she and the frame are painted at, it aligns perfectly with the street that leads into the lot where the building is located.
There was no theme and I was given a choice between a few different walls. Upon first being shown this building, a) I didn't want to touch it with a 10ft pole (a saying which doesn't mean much when you think about mural painting) and b) if I did, I wanted to do something full-height (unlike what I ended up doing). The hurdle for point a) was that there wasn't a better option and I didn't want to be the annoyingly picky and difficult painter. For point b) it was just that there wasn't a set of scaffolding available that would reach the top.
So after a few design iterations, I stumbled upon this idea merely a day or two prior to arriving. When I got there, I remembered what I had loved so much about the town and was happy to paint on any wall that I could. The stress of making something was simmered down to a simple feeling of slight unease that I always get prior to painting and after putting up the scaffolding and figuring out how to get my proportions right, I got to work.
The concept behind the imagery was that there's a deeper history in the building. Maybe not the structure itself, but the inhabitants and their lives, and the town itself. I wanted to create what appeared to be a passageway into that past, with this woman looking inside. Alternatively, she's also looking in on the inhabitants themselves. When the lights are turned on in the window next door, it appears as though she's turning to see what's happening. The scale of the piece was appropriate as you can see it clearly from a distance, and with the perspective she and the frame are painted at, it aligns perfectly with the street that leads into the lot where the building is located.
The photos of the wall that I was sent (aka the initial cause of my anxiety while simultaneously the reason for my eagerness to make something out of such a space).
The final piece (measuring 8m x 3m)
