CAPTAIN Youth & Family Services recently commissioned me to paint a mural in the quiet room of their runaway & homeless youth shelter. I’m 100% behind the phenomenal work their team is doing, and consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to go in and splash a bit of daydream inspiration on their walls.
Relinquishment of control over a creative project by a client isn’t always a good thing, but director Ashley Chandler’s open-ended spec was a delicious chance for me to get playful with concepts and pull content from themes I’m relate to very personally (treehouses!).
Concept gen started the moment I got the tour of the shelter. When I saw the beautiful massive oak tree in their backyard and the vegetable garden use as a therapeutic outlet for the teens, I knew immediately I wanted to incorporate that somehow. What resulted after sketching and letting my imagination run wild was a wild treetop garden fantasy. Hopefully some of my infatuation with the wonderland that is nature and the outdoors is captured in this and sparks a curious appreciation in the residents.
Painted with Montana acrylic paint markers.
Audio track by fellow son of the NoCo Joey Doughnuts.