Our first big mural job of the decade
It was an innocuous enough email requesting some murals for a children’s rec center. How were we to know the scale of the job? We met the owner, Steve, at the site in Buffalo Grove during the “before” phase. It looked like a cute office with long hallway for toddler play with a room to the side for a play house and a fun diner on the other.
 
We tossed around ideas and thought we were about done. We went into the art room, then two party rooms and then a huge play room, but wait there’s more, a theater!
And it's opening soon!
http://www.theclubforkids.net/
It’s in Buffalo Grove, but they will easily draw from Lincolnshire, Northbrook, Deerfield, Kildeer, really, all the Northern suburbs.
 
  
In the toddler area we created a sweet house exterior with bright cheerful flowers to draw the little homemakers into the play space - a room filled with all the domestic parafanalia you could dream of. There is also a closet of costumes, because wouldn’t you rather be a pirate or a princess than a mere mortal?
As this was a big job with an ASAP timeframe we brought in another couple of artists to assist. Terry is a skilled Faux Finisher, and BJ is an artist who turns her hand to many projects: printing, Public murals, and other forms of art.
 
The hallway itself leads to the “construction corner” where there will be play cars, work benches and other typically, but not exclusively, boy type toys. that was our most dramatic kid’s mural of the whole place. The construction workers are all animal (insert your own joke here), including a kangaroo with a jack-hammer and a bear electrician. The human contruction workers kept coming and checking it out. They felt right at home.
  
Paula gave Terry a quick lesson in volume & shadow and those french fries look like they are ready to pop right of the wall. On the far right you’ll notice what must be a custom left-handed purple electric guitar. I can’t imagine they were mass produced. BJ had pizza for dinner the night she painted the slice on the wall. Coincidence? I think not!
 
Paula & I drew the outlines and our wonderful Assistant Artists, BJ & Terry got right to work filling in the colors. It was also Terry’s first time using a scaffold. She was a great learner, and I bet she could put one together by herself now if she had to. Who'd want to though, if you can have help?
 Terry with the flowers.
Across the hall is a glass enclosed 50s style diner. The logo has irridescent foil on the marquee “lights” that reflect different colors. The center is blackboard paint so a birthday child can receive all the attention they are due.
 Neat little diner chairs!
We painted the diner motifs on the upper half of the wall. The nice construction workers let us have access to the walls, before they installed the booths. Yay! It was nice not to have to be climbing and crawling in the contorted ways we are used to.
Leaving the details to me and Paula the others started basepainting the decor in the HUGE playroom.
  
Paula was particularly thrilled with how the squiggly design going around the corners worked. A great way to cover lots of space with an energetic zap ... and let the solid color of the different walls do most of the work. A kind of punctuation!
  
That’s me painting the art room.
While I was in my own personal happy land, Paula HAND LETTERED the theater marquee.
 
 
That’s us finishing up the marquee. Terry, the wonder Assistant, took many of the pictures.
  Zap, pow!
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