I was talking recently with a fellow artist who had painted a mural for his daughter when see was a baby. She is a grown woman now and has told him how much having that mural in her life from the time she was so young has meant to her, and she actually became an artist herself--a muralist, no less!
I created the above underwater oceanscape for my own son before he was born, and I have always wondered what the effect would be on him. My hope has always been that a soothing water scene of cool colors would be soothing for him as a baby, but who can say, as he grows up? He is now 3-years-old. and has slept under it since he was born, the mural spanning most of one wall, at about 8' X 9' (the biggest canvas I could find, pasted up with strippable adhesive, so that I can always take it with us should, we move out of our renter one fine day).
Yet, what I was most struck with, while contemplating this mural lately, is how free I felt while creating it. It was so liberating to not worry about what the art world would think, or whether it was hip enough, or what it meant for my career as an artist. No, I only thought about painting a beautiful scene of coral, fish, jellyfish, and a big sea turtle for a little baby. This was also shortly after the disillusionment and well, frankly horror, I experienced while completing a master's degree in fine art, in the heart of Manhattan.
Did the mural, and the little baby that sleeps under it, change the way I make art today? Is it more free and fun for me, and is that my ultimate goal as an artist, and for my life? Things to think about while I work on my 40 Paintings...
