Murals are cool.

Local Artist Jennie Milner tells the story of three mural commissions.  I love her writing style!  Hopefully it will help some of you who have been thinking about going out into the community to do some art.

"I decided when I lived in upstate N.Y. among all the hunters and fishermen that we needed an art school, so I converted my garage and started teaching workshops after school.  I decided that my art kids were really good and we wanted to paint a mural - my first mural was fully funded by the community at the New York State Zoo.  18 kids under the age of 12!  Then I moved back to Colorado (my real home) and decided I would start painting.  At CSU I was a pre-vet major for half a second (took Biology 3 times to get an A), then a painting major and then finally graduated 6 years later with a B.F.A. in Metalsmithing.  I've been a metalsmith for 17 years! 

I painted two murals on glass at Linton Elementary & then a piano for Pianos About Town.  Then I just happened to be sitting next to the facilities coordinator for Google corporate at an awards dinner and was hired to paint their loading dock in Boulder.  The concept was "Colorado weather - fires and floods - but with humor" - oh boy!  What a challenge.  I did the inside of that in January and the outside in May. 

Remax of Cherry Creek called two weeks ago and wanted a mural before their open house on October 20th.  They had just undergone a huge renovation & built out this great space that they expected kids to go play while their parents were in closings but they'd painted it gray and it wasn't inviting enough.  The concept was "the real estate experience from the perspective of the children" - I added "as birds in high heeled shoes"!  I also thought about how my kids viewed looking at real estate and how disinterested they were unless it had a tree house, a pool in the yard, or polka-dot paint.  I mean, it takes a lot to intrigue a kid when we're talking about shelter... they prefer cardboard & duct tape after all.  So the little birds are doing everything BUT looking at the houses... one is dancing ballet, one is skateboarding & the parents are sort of looking & one is pointing with her eyebrows in a question but the parents are all with the children.  The houses are in the trees with polka-dots and stripes and trying desperately to be attractive!  haha

The Google loading dock was tricky because it was a high traffic door & I was constantly interrupted (what I thought was a 30 hour job turned into 50)!  The Remax mural was 9 hours, I expected it to be 8-10.  I was not interrupted once and nobody knew I was there.  I spent 7 solid hours painting with music in my ears (bliss) and came back the following day for 2 hours to outline with paint pens & clean up!  Phew.

Here's the stats: 
9 hours, 16 colors, 1,000 grand plié's, 8 brushes, 2 rollers, 3 paint pens, and zero paint spilled into my purse (which actually happened to my Maruca purse at the Google site)!

The best part is that I got paid very well.  Both murals were bid with a design fee & materials fee which were paid in advance... then the mural fee is basically $80/hour (and I literally guess how long it will take and if I have to work more hours... that's my "donation" because I didn't guess well enough!  I take into consideration the amount of distractions & weather & everything else I can consider tho').  I know that I can paint a simple design on a 10' x 8' wall in about 8 hours.  I also charged both companies my travel expenses.  Google paid a security guard to "take care of me" (aka bring me yogurt and granola bars and keep me company) so that I could paint mostly at night & they put me up in a hotel for one night. 
Remax offered a hotel but I had a place to stay so I saved them the $.  I have a contract that says I own the mural and that no changes can be made without contacting me first.  It says that they get a chance to change the design during the design phase (3 drawings & then three redraws), but once the mural is underway no changes will be made without an additional fee.  It also says that I will pamper the mural for one year and then they can pay me $80/hour to repaint any damage for up to 10 years.
The New York Zoo mural was different... I charged the parents of the kids for a 4 week mural class (3 classes meeting on three different days of the week with 18 kids total x $55 = 990 - this is all the money I made on this mural which is great considering it was my first one ever).  The kids painted 3 panels of wood that were donated from the hardware store & those were our "pitch" to the zoo board.  They board chose a panel they liked best and we used that as our design.  The kids showed up in groups of 3 in 2 hour increments for two days & painted.  The hardware store donated all the supplies, the kids raised money in their neighborhoods & we used that money to hire a photographer & throw ourselves a big reveal party & each kid got a goody bag as "payment"!  The photographer allowed us to print unlimited quantities of the best mural image & we donated those as postcards to the zoo to sell in their gift shop!  In the end... we donated $100 to the zoo (money left over) and the cards which they made $3 each on for the next year!  It was amazing!

Getting paid is something most artists are bad at... and should be at first.  Opportunity is a delicious thing and nobody pays until you prove that you are worth it!