Million ways to get things done

An autumnal potpourri of recent and upcoming projects

Since everyone is dying to hear my take on that twice-in-a-generation spectacle, the 40th anniversary remastering of “Stop Making Sense” followed by live Q&A with an astonishingly casual Spike Lee: Yes, of course I loved it. I had to go straight home after the screening and turn a months-old doodle into a sticker of Talking Heads lyrics instead of working on my campaign website like I had planned.

It now joins this bumper sticker in the category of new products I need to add to my online shop before the holiday browsing season kicks in.

Be an ally!

Speaking of bike lanes

It is a rare treat to have a painting site that I can bike to! Since August, my good friend Alex and I have been assisting on the Pemberton Mural Project in North Cambridge. The project, an 80’ long wall near the O’Neill Library and the Pemberton Tennis Courts, is helmed by local artist Whitney van Praagh, and funded through the City’s participatory budgeting process.

Alex and I started working with Whitney when the mural was still in its planning stages, taking on different aspects of the work according to our strengths. I created a digital template of the mural based on Whitney’s outline, and helped with supplies research and ordering. Alex has been exercising her social superpowers, organizing, welcoming and facilitating groups of volunteers and students onsite. We’ve both been snapping photos for the project Instagram that Alex maintains, and tag-teaming a simple web page that gets updated daily with painting hours.

Whitney is fantastic, completely easy to work with, and she’s designed the mural to maximize community involvement. The background of solid-color swirls has allowed locals of all skill and confidence levels to contribute. On top of the background colors, our volunteers and I add repeating textures – simple and complicated ones are equally welcome. Finally, painters are invited to add small characters and vignettes among the colorful swirls. I kicked things off with a cartoon snail on the wall’s west end, and community artists have added everything from ombré flowers to rollerskating goats.

This recent photo shows some of the new community-painted texture and characters. Can you spot the flower, ladybug and octopus?

If you’re local and want to paint, just check the website day-of and swing by if it works with your schedule. Mid-October is our hard deadline, and then the City have a protective sealant applied.

Things are looking up

In August, Alex and I painted a ceiling mural for a shelter in Chelsea. HarborCOV has been working to completely remake one of their community rooms into a “zen den,” with the goal of creating a calming chill zone and activity area for some of the youth groups that they serve.

I am so grateful for the connections that allowed Alex and I to be a part of this project. It is very meaningful to work with an organization that does such noble work in the community, and with so much compassion. I am thankful to have gotten the chance to know the HarborCOV staff and mission through the project and to design a mural that aligns with their vision for the space.

This project was a perfect combination of feel-good vibes and challenging tactics. The ceiling is a bit shorter than standard, which made for some interesting improv between scaffold, ladder, and just standing and reaching. We spent almost the entire first day just applying primer, thanks to the drop ceiling panels, with their minute elevation changes and their tendency to pop in and out of place.

Alex and I hit our goal of completing the mural in three days – but we were so spent by our sprint to the finish, we even rain-checked post-mural margaritas!

One of the things I was happiest about with this mural are those wiggly, textured lines in white and green. We used a technique I piloted in my Studio 124 mural last fall. I designed it (and every other recent mural) on the Procreate drawing app on my iPad, which comes with a very nice texture brush of irregularly spaced lines. You can see it in the digital mockup of the mural design.

When it first came to paint that texture on the mural last year, I thought – wait, how do I replicate the effect on an actual wall? Painting parallel lines individually with a brush would change the spacing – it wouldn’t be the same. After some R&D, my favorite approach is to create that negative space by carving strips out of foam rollers. It’s very DIY and creates a handmade texture that feels really right.

Hats off to local photographer Jessie James for taking some truly wonderful, beautifully-lit photos of this mural despite the fact that it is on a short ceiling in a very small room with poor lighting.

An unexpected treat

I will be participating in the Troy Art Block Mural Expo next month! Twenty-two new murals will be painted in downtown Troy between October 11 and October 14, with all artists live-painting during the festival on the 14th.

My window mural in Lowell in July taught me that I really love the challenge of painting hard and fast, which made me think I ought to try positioning myself for mural festivals. Now that painting quick murals I can actually feel good about doesn’t seem out of the question, I’d love to start shooting for this kind of opportunity more often. The novelty of travel, the chance to create work in new areas, meeting other muralists and arts workers – it all sounds great.

All that to say, I’m feeling really grateful that the Arts Center invited me to be one of their out-of-town muralists for this event. I have my wall assignment (though I don’t actually know the address yet) and it’s a funky one! All the spaces in blue and teal are mine to paint.

I’m very excited to revisit some of my favorite Troy spots while I’m in town, and to spend time with my family. If you’re going to be in the Capital Region that weekend, let me know.

Women’s Day rejected these healthy snack ideas

These days, three distinct flavors of crunch time are overlapping: the tail end of outdoor painting season; the application window for many public art funding opportunities; and campaign season. It’s a lot to fit in on top of my current/ongoing mural, illustration, and City Council projects. On the campaign side alone, there’s canvassing (knocking on doors), attending events, designing/sending campaign literature, and fundraising. (If you want to pitch in, I’m 75% of the way to my goal with 6 weeks left to go. Thank you.) I’m submitting a couple of grant proposals to bring Dance Steps to other communities, which I’m feeling very excited and hopeful about.

Due to my schedule, my well of culinary inspiration has been even drier than normal and my cooking skills are, frankly, rusty. I still simply must eat fun things 3-5 times a day, however, and these two truths aren’t mutually exclusive. For example:

• Did you know you’re allowed to put miso in your oatmeal? It doesn’t even mean that you can’t put cinnamon in; you can keep doing that. You can even put furikake on top – in fact I recommend it, all three. People put salt in oatmeal already, so I don’t see why this would be weird.

• Chickpeas: Boil a huge amount until tender. Combine with olive oil, lots of salt and pepper, and dill. Good to go.

• Find as many sweet potatoes as possible – Japanese sweet potatoes and Caribbean batatas are my favorites. Wrap them in foil and bake them for a little too long, then turn off the oven and keep them in there until you go to bed. Refrigerate. Good to eat at any time of day. Pair with any protein and vegetable. Very fun.

• It’s fall, so this is the perfect time to develop a specific, provocative apple preference. I have a lot to say on this topic.

Thanks for reading!

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Until next time,

Kit