July 11, 2017

that time i made a mural

I'm not a crafty person. It just isn't my love language. I don't have an eye for picture walls, I almost always wish I'd chosen a different color scheme, I lose patience for tiny details.
I do like to paint. Especially when the painting involves copying other pictures or... tape.
Enter my mural project.
When I moved to Tucson, my little mouse house had a butt-ugly wall. A fenced-in yard, which makes Bixby SO happy. But in that yard, a really, reeeeeally ugly wall. A wall that I decided to fix. I googled some stuff, decided on a geometric pattern, went to Lowes (got laughed at a little, they didn't believe I was gonna finish or that it would look good I think??), bought four little containers of paint and a bunch of masking tape - NOT painting tape, I got that as well and it would not stick to the wall - and went at it. Until I got bored. The project took a few months, when I could have honestly knocked it out in a week.
But it's done now, and I'm really pleased with the result, and here are the photos!
So here's the inspiration, it's called Red Red Rhombus by Melanie Mikecz. The photo links to a place where you can purchase the print if you'd rather not make an enormous version of it yourself.
Bixby was super helpful. This is the wall as it was when I moved in - not the most welcoming or aesthetically pleasing.
First round of taping! I also drew this out on paper before putting it on the wall.
Every other box was painted. I only used red, white, blue, and yellow and just mixed them in little paper bowls.
Removed the short bits of tape, retaped on top of the painted parts, painted the other boxes within each long strip, removed all the tape except the top and sides. Then I retaped some more.
If I were going to be living here any longer, you would also see a photo with cute little cactuses and tomato plants and stuff lined up in front of the wall. As it is, I'm peacing out of this house by the end of the month. Hope the landlord and the next tenant like it!