I recently began gardening in the city and live next door to a community garden; I was drawn to the idea of fresh food grown in an urban setting as an overarching inspiration for this mural. I explored edible organic forms, specifically including actual plants I was personally growing in my own garden at the time I was working on this piece (strawberries, corn, carrots, blueberries, and peas) as well as local trees.
Visually, I juxtaposed these organic forms with man-made city structures, fabric textures, and human silhouettes. The houses and telephone poles you see in the piece are from my neighborhood on the near westside of Cleveland.
I played with layering, scale, texture and color to weave together a piece which communicates both fresh food and urban living, two themes important to the clients, as well as highlighting a local Cleveland aesthetic.
The final original screen print was composed of 13 hand printed layers utilizing split fountain and transparent ink. It measures roughly 29’’ x 9’’ and was blown up and wrapped to the wall at full scale of 30’ x 9.5’.
