The corner of the Speedway Children's Charities Wing

This was the start of the Speedway Children's Charity Wing.
The center just received a grant from the organization so they may offset the
mortgage for their new building!

logo

Speedway Children's Charities Logo

the finished SLoth

Last week almost marked the 200 hour mark!!

Mr. Panther

I added this fellow on Saturday and finished him on Sunday!
I enjoy adding new family members to the rain forest, however
I am now going to "begin" finishing what is already
there! Then and only then will I
possibly think of what other animals
could be added. This whole process is just so fun- and the
possibilities are really endless it seems, but I
do want to begin on the other wall.

Greg Frost

With the help of my friend Greg- this past weekend was very productive! We both worked Saturday and I on Sunday, but only for 5 hrs because I became sick Sat night :(

Post Number "50"!! Vines!

I am going to tie in the areas that have more of a void with vines that
wrap and twist around other branches, vines, etc....

I believe that this will make the wall feel like more of a continuation, with no abrupt breaks in the design and/or concept!

Tree number 10?

I have two more trees that I want to add to the wall!

Three Toed Sloth

I try and think while I'm beginning a part - to show the process, so here's the under painted sloth- next to the more developed creature!

A more distant view of the environment!

The wall is really coming alive with animals of all types. I am always trying to think of which animals go best together- trying to create a dialog between them has been entertaining!

This Lemur's almost there

A few more facial features and he'll be finished!

Ladybugs!

Who doesn't love ladybugs? I had been thinking of rain forest animals, but not really insects, beetles, etc...now I have a whole new pool of images which to draw from! I am anticipating 2 more weekends!!

The invisible tree!

This is the first time that I've
painted the vines before the tree- and the results are amazing! I guess I just
wanted to change up the routine a bit.

The process

Another image of the projector

This shows the before and after of the process of transferring the images to the wall. My Mom came in yet again to help with refining the elephant. She really has a knack for making the animals come to life!!

Prior to last weekend

We have now had two full weekends on the mural since this photo
was taken. This is the end of the hallway. The
photos that follo0w are the images that
have been added.

Cara came to visit!

I haven't seen Cara in a while- as she is a full time teacher in Richardson, so this was a fun day! She came to contribute her time to the mural and successfully finished out the giraffe- Yeah!!

Bromeliad

Filling in with variety of foliage.

....more plants!

Joana's talented self!

Joana again has offered her talents to the center.Here, she has painted another animal for
the children to embrace.

This cute little guy will help the children be as successful as they can be in their recovery!

Liz and Marcia

Liz transferring the three-toed sloth!

New critters coming into view!

I am wanting to be finished with adding what animals will be

included in the rain forest mural, by the end of this

coming weekend.

Ivy... getting closer!

Marcia finally got to paint green! She painted the ivy

up the tree-higher and higher...

away we go!

The whole crew

This past Saturday we had everybody who has worked on the mural so far there from 9am-4pm. Much got done as you will see in the following images!

The monkey is getting more friendly!

My Mom stopped in to see the progress and the work still left to be done
when I asked for her assistance in helping w/the monkey which I started
last week. I am not attaching the image of monkey prior to my Mom offering her skills
to help him to appear less scary- because he definitely was that!
Thanks Mom!

Chris and Liz

Working on the long wall now. There is color on most of the first phase of this mural project. The remaining wall past the conference room is yet to be started on, but I feel confident that it will be being worked on during this month (November 2009)

Tree number 6

Chris is back again!

My Son's Toucan

My son Elek is always wanting to draw along side of me while I'm working on the sketches at home. Here is his toucan artwork!

Details

We work with what we have- "The father of invention is necessity" right? The acrylic paints which were donated by Liquitex are being used for the detail of the animals as well as some of the fading values!

Chris Lee

Here is Chris Lee hard at work on the sand (middle ground) . He also started on filling in the distant trees- he will be also working on the mural next week! - Thanks Chris!

Further Away

So that the proportion can be seen- here is a picture a bit further away- also the beginnings of the flower can be seen!

One Macaw

One macaw finished after about an hour or so of work.

Marcia Keough

Marcia painting away! We were able to get a lot done this weekend, I am hoping that she will be back next weekend to help with the longest wall of Jungle!

Finished Tree Frog

Each weekend more and more gets finished! This weekend there were two students taking the art advocacy course with Dr. Davis who cntributed their time and energy. I got to work on this little guy who I named "Croak" after my cousin Kirsten's last name.

Kiba painting!

Seeing the Difference

As I work to get the remaining images transferred to the wall- I will show the original sketches that I used as reference for the design
- next to the painted in versions.

Paint vs.Color Pencil

Toucan

After the first weekend of working- the first animal gets painted in by Joanna- the Toucan. This next week will be the first week that the children of the center will see the painted walls! I am very excited to hear about their reactions.

New Aditions to the Advocacy Family

As I work on transferring my sketches to the wall, I am taking into account the doorways, lighting fixtures , plaques, etc and trying to place the subject matter in places which seem best suited for the imagery.