Fish, Turtles and Mussels--Mural, Part 2

All around us, as Liam and I slogged away on our latte-brown otters, people were creating wonderful things in wonderful colors. Leah Seaman ( artabella_gallery on Instagram) had time to do a lovely bluegill and some fabulous rocks before she had to take off. 

Bobby added a plain pocketbook mussel with its fish lure extended, and put a bunch of other native Ohio River mussels in Leah's lovely gravel bed.

Leah Seaman is front left, that's JZ on right front. Peeping from behind Leah is Beth Nash. Hailey Bennett is back left, organizer Bobby Rosenstock second from left, back; Liam Thompson, then there's Jolene Powell (@jolenepowellart) back right, who did a lot of the background plants. We were so lucky to get this team!

Savannah King (meadow_monarch on Instagram) worked for a couple of days on the giant paddlefish in the photo above. 

Yes, they swim the Ohio! Here's Savannah, working away.

Beth Nash (bethnashart on Instagram) made these beautiful spotted gar. I just adore her loose painterly style, and her fearlessness.

Here's Beth's redhorse sucker, and her American eel, which Liam painted! He had so much fun with the Noodle, as he referred to it. 

Here's Beth's magnificent muskellunge! Hard to believe we were here for only four days, when so very much got done. Nobody fooled around--it was get down and deal with it!

Bobby Rosenstock's channel catfish has a cool vibe, like all his work--it's fun and a bit fanciful. Check him out at @justajar on Instagram. You'll get as hooked on him as I am, promise!

Bobby told a story that people are loving, of a largemouth bass eating a little perch, who has its eye on a worm...

Hailey Bennett ( @strategicallly on Instagram) made a gorgeous  smallmouth bass

and memorialized her lovely northern map turtle in the mural. She also painted gobs upon gobs of these freeform fishes that help weave and tie together the enormous composition.

Sarah Arnold (@clutchmov on Instagram) has done a magnificent job documenting our work on this mural. DO read her articles at this link.  Clutch MOV magazine   Her writing and her photography, and the images by photographer Michelle Waters are top-drawer.  

Here, Sarah comes in after work and sneaks in a spiny softshell turtle after everyone left Wednesday evening. What a sweet surprise it was to find it the next morning! Sarah does so much outreach to instill a sense of community pride in the Mid Ohio Valley. We are very grateful to have her support.

The scene in the tunnel, with worker bees laboring. Imagine good old-time music, happy fiddles and banjos, a dash of reggae...it was a happening!

It was so great to be immersed in this creative energy, to be painting with others. It's not something we ever get a chance to do, as art is such a solitary pursuit. I'd never done it at all. Now I'm hooked!

Pylons say: Artists at work! We had to block off the tunnel for four days, re-routing bikers and walkers, but almost everyone was friendly and very understanding about it. 

I'll give you a closer look at my "process" in the next posts. It all went well after the otters. :)

Here, Beth Nash and Liam talk about what painting together meant to them. I love the music in the background--Bobby Rosenstock attended to all the details to make this tunnel a happy art space. Including his graphic design professor wife Sara Alway-Rosenstock's incredible baked goods!! What a gift to us all!