Mural progress pics here..finally

Here is the wall the first time I saw it in May 2010.

27th and Kildare, La Villita Chicago

With the wall in such bad shape I knew we had our work cut out for us. I needed to come up with a unique design to compliment the garden and surrounding community.

 I came up with this.

A main goal was to make it stand out from other murals in the area while holding value for the community and garden. Drawing inspiration from the traditional Mexican textile art and embroidery I grew up with I thought would make a great design if put on a large scale. Once I laid out my initial design I researched and used only native Illinois wildflowers for the final composition. Some native and migratory animal life have been included to bring it all to life. What do you think?

Tony laid down our initial background.

Using the dark brown (similar to graffiti buster brown) was intentional for the purpose of covering up the spray painted doodles and to contrast with the bright flowers that we added.

Completed flowers on fabric at the studio.

They may look small here but these flowers took about a week to complete.

Some are about 4 feet wide!

Tony's up on the ladder making a giant collage while I painted the little shed.

Only the flowers are painted on a special fabric while the other elements are painted on site afterward.

We do owe a thanks to Maestro Muralist Hector Duarte, who inspired us to use the fabric technique.

Gracias Maestro!

Detail of the shed I painted.

We received many compliments on the mural from passersby. Lots of offers for work as well, which comes with the territory. "Do you do this for people's houses?" Can you paint this on my car?", was the most amusing, along with a car driving by that shouted, "Que chulada!" Though, I think they were giving a shout out to Tony up on the ladder. ;p

One of my favorite visitors! Little yellow bird.

Team work all around! I worked on the cardinal here then Tony got this butterfly going. :)

Jaime Deleon stopped in the see the progress.

We are almost done. I've been caught up in work for a few shows coming up but I will fill you in on the grand unveiling of this mural. Should be a fun BBQ!