Mural
The statement-making impact of large-scale piece art is beyond question. The ins and outs of finding and affording the right one, and bringing it home—and making it work in the place you've dreamed of putting it—is another story. I’m an avid art and handicraft collector and I’ve arranged many of the original pieces that I’ve collected throughout the years on our gallery wall and around our apartment. However, I still felt like that a large piece of art could really change the vibe of our kitchen/dining room space. I didn’t know what that piece should be but I knew that I want it to be related to my home country of Iran and its art and culture.
After months of thinking about the art piece that I wanted for our empty wall, one day I was talking with my friend @sisirescht who is a talented designer, illustrator, and pottery master when she mentioned that she has done a few murals and would love to do more. I casually said you could do one in our home since we have an empty wall that would be perfect for it. She said I would love to and this became the beginning of this project which was done in summer 2022, a year after our initial conversation.
I first picked 3 of her art works that I liked and asked if she thinks they could be a good match for our space and also if we could modify them to match our culture and the concept I have in mind. She was super flexible about the modification and agreed to come to our place to take a look at our space and the colors that are used in it, get some measurements, discuss what we had in mind, and explain the process and timeline.
Once we decided which of the three options would be the best, I sent a mood board and some details about the thoughts behind the images I had chosen. I wanted the mural to convey this message/feeling in a nutshell:
“It is as if we, while living in the freedom, comfort, and safety of where we are, are looking at our far away land, with concerned yet hopeful eyes. ”
After agreeing on the colors we went to Home Depot and bought all the colors that was needed based on her color-coded document and then did the work in 5 days. First day was the prep of the wall and doing the base coat which was dark green. The second day was spent transferring the outline of the art onto the wall and the rest of the days were all spent on painting.
I was mainly my friend’s assistant throughout the whole process and while I had my doubts about the result of the work in the beginning, I was ecstatic at the end with both the result and how much I had learnt during the work which was both fun and challenging.
