Community members in McLean County can paint portraits of themselves or their loved ones that will be part of a new mural outside of the McLean County Arts Center [MCAC].
“We're really encouraging everyone to be playful and have a lot of fun with it,” MCAC Executive Director Doug Johnson said.
All of the portraits are painted individually on Poly Tab vinyl, a fabric-like material that is meant to withstand weather and sunlight exposure.
After the portraits are painted, they are then cut out and pasted onto the wall outside MCAC.
Anyone can be an artist
“We've come up with a really nice representation of—who are the artists, who are the creatives in our community? And this will be a legacy that'll last for decades,” Johnson said.
Anyone can be an artist and contribute to the mural.
Bloomington resident Yolanda Alonso attended a mural workshop with her children and said she is "so far from being an artist," and did not know if she could even paint.
“My daughter loves to paint,” Alonso said, “but I don't know if I'm that good. But I said we are going to just have some fun.”
Alonso painted a portrait of her son, while her daughter painted a self-portrait.
Another one of the mural workshop attendees was MCAC intern Kayla Burrell, who was joined by her sister Jenna Burrell.
“I'm not really someone to do faces,” Kayla said. “I'm a collage artist, and I'm very used to cutting up bits of other artwork and reconstituting it into something. So doing something, especially my own face, was kind of intimidating.”
Jenna said she and Kayla connect a lot by doing art.
“I also didn't do a lot of painting, but this has been very exciting. Doug [Johnson] is an incredible teacher. He's very kind and friendly,” Jenna said.
Workshops
Johnson starts each painter off with a quick sketch of their face so they have a starting point to work from.
Everyone is given the same limited color palette to work with, but if painters work well with value structures and the warm and cool tones then the paintings appear lively and full.
“Because we have this limited palette, which you can make appear very full, these portraits will appear just as fresh when some of the children that are doing the portraits here today are my age,” Johnson said.
Some of the painters have learned to really focus on light and shadows to give the paintings contrast with such a limited palette.
“It started to get really muddy,” Kayla said, “and I was like, ‘I don't know how to fix this.’"
Johnson encouraged her to add some light to one part of the portrait.
"I did it, and it is 300-times better,” she said. “I want to do this more often and not be afraid of mistakes. I've been focused a lot on light and contrast, which is something I've done before because I've taken art classes, but just the practice and getting out here, it's not high pressure.”
The mural
Johnson said the portraits will live outside MCAC for decades.
Outside the building there are concrete walls that have been “a bit of an eye sore,” he said, that the mural of community members’ and pets’ faces now get to cover.
“Both metaphorically and actually—the community is the foundation of the organization,” Johnson said.
MCAC is hosting free workshops through mid-July to help participants paint their portraits, all skill levels are welcome and supplies are provided. The mural will be officially unveiled Friday, Aug. 15, at 6 p.m. outside MCAC, 601 N. East St., Bloomington.
