Inspiring Muralist

heather christian iglesias rising muralist

I’m going to call myself a inspiring muralist because I only have a few murals under my belt. Although it feels very natural to me after years of creating faux finishes and painting aesthetically.

Growing up seeing friends work, I’ve always had a good day dream about creating murals. Back then, it always seemed too big and out of my reach. Excuses… (snarking at myself) lack of ability, lack of space and materials, and mostly a lack of confidence.

Moving ahead a few years, I was deployed to Iraq. You can read a little more about that here. I painted many many walls. If you don’t know about my time there, I was a combat engineer. Alternatively in lull times, in between tower guard and building shit, I painted.

If you’re not familiar with Army life, it sounds quite beneath ones job. Just to compare it with other Army patterns, when I was training to be an electrician, I could run a buffer machine like no body’s business.

I digress a bit, so back to inspiring muralist.

Prior to that deployment, I had already been an artist, so I knew fine art paint. However there’s something about painting large scale on different surfaces that, in hindsight, prepared me to even attempt a mural.

I learned quite a bit about paint and painting large scale, even if it was just big squares. If you’re a DIYer and have painted many rooms in your home, you know what I’m talking about. Among other homes, I once painted our entire old 1600 square feet home, to include ceilings. I learned a thing or two from that as well.

Painting furniture and faux finishes gave me that extra confidence to just start painting on my walls. I stand by my motto “it’s never too late to start creating again”.

Lately, I have painted many murals while living here in South Carolina. See this post of the very first mural I created in our Summerville home as a inspiring muralist. Many of which are in our kids play room. Please check a couple of those and additional mural videos.

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