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The Studio of Eric Valosin

Monday, December 5, 2011

Sight Seeing is a ...LONG Process.

As you may know, When I'm not pouring out my innate brilliance out all over a canvas (or at least pouring out the soupy contents of my mind as I try to figure out how and why to do anything on a canvas), I work as a Sign Artist for Trader Joe's in Westfield, NJ.  And I must say, I'm noticing a trend...

Our store is relatively unique in that we have 5 artists on staff, 3 of us working full-time hours (well, 2 now that I'm in school).  When I first started a little over 2 years ago, they had been talking about an mural idea for a timeline of the company's history.  Considering everyone's excitement over the project, I couldn't figure out why none of the 5 artists (or their predecessors) had ever taken it on.  But here came the new guy, and it would be time for me to prove my muster with this first mural project.

Then I found out why no one wanted the task - the dimensions: about a foot-and-a-half tall, by 70 or so feet long.  The location: on the ceiling.




Well, at least I got it over with, and, having proven myself, never again would I have to make another absurdly long and narrow mural, right?

Bingo.  You guessed it.  "Hey Eric, we need something to go in front where the Shaw [pictured above] used to be [after having been condensed leftward].  How about a mural of Westfield landmarks? Oh, and it should run along the bottom of the windows, but it can't cover the windows."

Dimensions?  1.5 feet tall, by 48 or so feet long!  Location?  Exactly underneath the first one!!


Here's the prep work.  Pinned to the wall (under the hamburgers.  don't ask) is a sketch, if you can see it, of what it will look like when finished (chopped into 4 digestible fragments).  For a sense of scale, The hamburgers are actual size (if you make hamburgers that are twice the size that they normally are...) and each of the longer segments on the table is 8 feet long.  There are 6 of those, total.  I'll post some more pictures as it gets underway;  I just started painting it today, finally.  A fellow crew member asked how long it would take.  Considering it's taking a back seat to whatever else they spring on me (during the busiest season of the year) I told her I'd have it done at least by the time I'm 45.

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