Office Mural
One of the first large-scale projects I ever did off canvas was a landscape in a family member’s office space. At this point, I was most familiar with oil paint and had really only used acrylic paint in specific school projects. Just to add to the challenge, I had only a three-day window to get the entire project done. Still, I was excited to experiment and got to work!
The landscape is from a viewpoint of Yellowstone Falls, Yellowstone National Park. I started the initial sketch on the wall by blocking it with contrasting underpainting colors that complement the final image. I think I scared my family a bit at this stage of the mural but they ended up seeing the progressive building of colors layer by layer. Shout out to my sister who despite her fears of making a mistake, picked up a brush and helped fill out the underpainting. The final product spanned 10′ wide and 9′ tall and took about 25 hours of painting over three days.
King of Grace Lutheran School, 4th Grade Classroom
In 2022, a close friend and grade school teacher at King of Grace Lutheran School approached me about possibly painting a giant heat vent that stretches over half of her classroom. At first, the idea of painting on a giant 40′ metal tube seemed a bit goofy and a little daunting, but the school administration was supportive and excited to incorporate more artwork into their school so I jumped on the opportunity.
There were a few goals with the project: make the heat vent visually interesting incorporate it into the learning environment and develop a positive relationship with the school for potential future projects. The mural tells the story of child development and growth in faith from infancy through eighth grade based on what is visually engaging or interesting to children at each age. The collage of items is meant to match the busyness of an I Spy book and items are pulled from the teacher’s and my childhood as well as more modern items from current younger generations. It felt a bit silly but the research was much more extensive than I initially anticipated. Technology changes aside, the students in 2022 had pretty different childhood experiences to my own. In one of the best research exercises, the 4th-grade students actively participated and drew several items that were included in the mural final design. In total, the mural design and painting time was about 50 hours of work.
King of Grace Lutheran School, 2nd and 8th Grade Room
In early 2023, the King of Grace Lutheran School principal reached out about completing two classroom mural projects over the coming summer and I couldn’t have been more excited! The school had some faculty and classroom changes, so this was an excellent opportunity to help the teachers move into and put a personal touch on their new classrooms.
Two different classrooms, two very different painted surfaces, and two different mural ideas. After I assessed the supply and time needs for both projects, my first step was to get in contact with the two teachers and discuss their ideas.
The new 8th-grade and upper-class math teacher happened to be a close friend of mine from college who was familiar with my landscape painting work, so the subject of her mural was well-defined from the beginning. She wanted one of my waterfall paintings, specifically the local Minnehaha Falls in central Minneapolis, MN, with the idea of incorporating mathematical concepts into the image. The math was a bit of a unique puzzle, but we found a solution. There are plenty of visual mathematical concepts, especially in geometry. Once the landscape portion was done, we hid several mathematical diagrams and drawings throughout the bright landscapes. Some are definitely easier to find than others, but it’s a fun and engaging element to the bright and colorful landscape. In total, the floor-to-ceiling mural took about 50 hours of prep work and painting time.
The 2nd-grade teacher wanted to bring in lots of fun colors and storytelling from their Old Testament Bible curriculum without being too distracting for her energetic students. Images are especially powerful educational tools for younger grade-schoolers, not to mention the positive impact on the classroom visually when you decorate a mechanical eyesore like a two-foot thick heating pipe. After lots of brainstorming and sketches, we developed a character design and style and a set of Bible stories that culminated in the prophecies of Jesus Christ in the book of Isaiah. In total, the mural design, classroom prep work, and actual painting time took a total of 60-70 hours of work.
MINDY PITZNER 