I have definitely established in past blog posts how much I love painting murals. The only thing that makes mural painting even better is painting them in public places for many people to enjoy – which was absolutely the case with a recent project I did for a day care center in Medfield!
The Medfield Children’s Center (MCC) has been around since 1982 (and was attended by my now 13 year-old son!) and has been operated out of a church – until now! MCC is almost done building a state-of-the-art facility just a short distance away from their old home. As part of this new start, the director, Robin, pulled me in to help set the right tone in the entryway.
A staple in the old facility was the “kindness tree” – a leafless construction paper tree on which leaves with kid’s pictures were taped to acknowledge acts of kindness. To continue but update this tradition, Robin wanted my mural to include a new kindness tree inscribed with the statement “kindness grows here”. She also wanted a mural with the following quote: “Some kids are smarter than you. Some kids have cooler clothes than you. Some kids are better at sports than you. It doesn’t matter! You have your thing too. Be the kid who can get along. Be the kid who is happy for other people. Be the kid who does the right thing. Be the nice kid.” This speaks volumes about Robin’s focus on kindness and is a perfect way to get the message out to students and parents as soon as they enter the building.
After looking at floor plans for available space for murals – I suggested we put these 2 together in one big mural – which Robin was immediately on board with. To round out the scene, Robin asked that I include a cardinal and a dragonfly – both of which have significance for her and her family. With this information in hand – I was off to do my design concept. Below is the design I presented – and Robin loved it! In designing the tree, I wanted to keep the branches low enough that the staff could reach all the branches with any kind of step stool, with several branches at child height. The choice of purple for the dragonfly was to balance the colors already in the mural and make it stand out against the green grass – but as it turns out, purple is also Robin’s favorite color!
Now that I had approval on the design, it was just a matter of waiting for the space to be completed to the point that I could get in and paint the mural. Once on-site, the wall that best suited the mural was actually a little longer than we had planned – BUT, this worked out great in terms of making the quote a little less crowded with the tree.
Below are pictures of the progress of the mural – leading up to the finished result.
The wall before i started
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
The final result!
Close-up of the cardinal
Close-up of the dragonfly
The kindness tree!
The quote
I rarely go back and update old blog posts, but in this case it was warranted! Now that MCC’s new facility is open and school is in full-swing, I was able to go back and experience the mural now that the tree is in bloom with the kindness leaves. It was amazing to see the transformation and truly special to experience first-hand children putting up their leaves.
Enjoy!!
Jason
