Early stage of mural process.

Evan Schmidt’s rain catching sculpture. Amazing!

Myself with Linzy Miggantz enjoying the Arty Party

As Gary Pletsch moved into his neighborhood, he knew he wanted to make a positive impact on his new community. A contribution to beautify the West End neighborhood is what he wanted to do to show others care. So, in the tradition of the East End Event that took place annually in the Regent Square/ Wilkinsburg area, Gary decided to throw an annual Arty Party in his new neighborhood in the West End. This year’s party will featured site specific sculpture and art from a variety of artist friends, including myself.

I worked on this beautiful Red Eyed Tree Frog as part of a community mural art piece as a part of the Roving Art Cart with Citipark’s at Riverview Park, Pittsburgh, PA. These art pieces are on display at the City County Building in Pittsburgh. I carefully designed this community art piece at home by drawing out a large shaped composition. When we arrived at the park, we invited participants to paint on the canvas. I lead the new painters by giving them color and an area to fill in, all the time giving mini art lessons on painting, blending, types of brush strokes, and mixing colors. Some very interested painters even help in figuring out what colors go where. What a blast! It is incredible to see how much paint we accomplished in three hours! Now the big question, where will this awesome work of art be seen in Pittsburgh?
See more pictures of the work in progress….

It is incredible to see what people can do when they work together. This was all done in three hours of painting!!

Some young painters assist in the project.

I love my job!

Yes, do not attempt to adjust your screen. That is a giant letter D with dogs painted on it. This summer I was asked by Citiparks of Pittsburgh to create a nifty design for an eight foot high giant D as part of their Storywalk celebration in Frick Park. After much consideration, it was obvious that this towering letter should be covered in floating orange, blue, purple, and pink dogs. Its for the kids! As a bonus, I also asked the 300+ kids who visited my station to draw a picture of their favorite dog to tack up on the large D. Their drawings were a hoot!

I especially loved the drawings done by a group of little Korean girls (not pictured) who pretty much corner the market when it comes to drawing anything cute.

This summer, I have been working with the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts to create the Endangered Species Community Art Series. This gorgeous macaw painting was created by participants at the North Side Community festival. Adults and children had the opportunity to paint on a giant pre-drawn canvas to complete this painting. Check out the images of the process.

During the painting process, I create opportunities to show people painting techniques such as how to hold a brush, how to use a brush to paint clean lines, shading, and blending.

I helped children and adults by giving them colors and areas to fill.

The original drawn canvas.

I love this mural. Sea Turtles are very special. They are endangered species with such gentle souls. I love learning about them and watching them swim. They are so graceful and serene. I designed this Sea Turtle mural in a paint by number fashion with no numbers, just colors. Participants filled in areas with acrylic paint. People of all ages, from toddlers to adults were excited to be a part of this large scale painting. People tend loose their inhibitions and become part of a larger project with others. It is a great joy to see this. This awesome mural was created at the South Side Works with support from National City Bank and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

3′ X 9′ acrylic on gallery canvas. See the work in progress.

Children working on the mural. It was great!

Participants at had the 2006 Bark in the Park had the opportunity to join in the fun by painting a pet portrait on canvas for themselves! See how this work of art was created…

This fantastic pet portrait of Zero was painted at the Carol Gates Gluck Resource Center at Animal Friends. I drew the image of Zero onto the canvas and delineated the areas of color. Each area was assigned a color in a paint by number fashion. The result is a great pet portrait work of art to grace the Animal Friends walls for years to come!

“Lend Me Your Ears” is a mural designed by artist, Jordan Monahan. In the summer of 2004, I was hired to work together with Jordan to paint this 8,700 square foot mural in less than two months…. It seemed like an impossible task for only two people; however, we knew we would meet our deadline…

My Lionfish design was chosen to be created into a giant inflatable as part of the Pittsburgh Roars campaign in conjunction with the Fierce Friends exhibition at the Carnegie museum of art.

Our tropical fish final painting image!

During the Roving Art Cart session in Frick Park, people came up to help work on painting this large scale, 4 X 4 foot, canvas painting of this tropical fish. I like to guide the really little ones paint on the background by giving them two-three harmonious colors to blend, so no matter how they lay it on the canvas, it looks great! They love the experience of feeling the paint lay onto the canvas, as well as the feeling of contributing to something big! I usually have my groupie painters who stick around for the full three hour session, while others simply come and go when they have had their painting fill. It is a blast for everyone!