Instant mural! These are so easy

Don’t tell me that you’re planning to do a mural. Do it now. Start Taking Small Steps.

Decorate with chalk. Paint on fabric. Decorate parachute cloth. Paint on paper. Paint on boards. Paint on sheets of aluminum or alumalite. Cut pieces of colorful coroplast and assemble into fun designs. Use shoe polish on glass. Paint a blank wall with chalkboard paint.

Hang your insta-murals with magnets from metal siding. Hang them in windows. Hang them on fences.

Paint the utility poles. Paint the traffic bollards. Paint the concrete waterways. Paint conduits. Paint the retaining walls. Paint the cracks in the sidewalk and the sides of buildings. 

Look around. See those bricked-up windows, filled in doorways or plastered-over openings? Those are frames. Fill them with art. 

Thinking that the solution has to be big and permanent is what keeps you from doing cool little things that only last a while.

Use wraps. You’ve seen cars with colorful wraps. Wrap utility boxes. Wrap shipping containers or trailers used as storage. Wrap entire buildings.

Stick colored slats into chain link. Buy the specially made cups designed for decorating chain link.  

Treat every mural as temporary, an expression of today. Expect them to weather, peel, fade or blister away. Be ready to paint over them and make space for new art to replace it. After awhile, take down your insta murals, cut them into frame-able chunks and sell them off to raise money for the next project.  

Let’s be honest, most of our murals aren’t that groundbreaking in terms of artistic merit anyway. And they don’t have to be. No mural is sacred. If an artwork is sacred to you, convert it to a more permanent form or take it inside. And make space outside for new temporary art of today. 

The goal isn’t the mural itself or the artwork or being in control. The goal is to build community.

Keep shaping the future of your town, 
Becky

PS –  Send me pics of your insta murals and fun public art. The quicker, the cheaper, the more fun, the better! I want to share them with everyone.