adapting, painting, teaching & following my own advice

What happens when you learn enough new stuff to radically alter your current opinions about running a business?

I've always preferred the word "adapt" when it comes to my creative endeavors, art, business or fun, and so over the last few weeks I've been adapting to a few new circumstances and "ah-ha" moments that have required some serious consideration.

I haven't tried to keep up with my posts and updates, which some of you have noticed since keeping up with kids and your own business is already more than enough for one person to do when combined with any kind of serious soul searching.

Fortunately, I have continuing demand for my various services, and more than one "ah-ha" had to do with delivering these services in better ways to the wider audience I've been developing through my online portfolio, this blog, and on Twitter, one of the many social media tools I teach other artists, contractors and small businesses to survive in the new economy.

So look for some changes and and new info over the summer with what I'm doing online as I respond to what's going on around us using the same theories and strategies about online marketing and social media integration that I teach my students.

Of course I'm still running a mural and faux finish business, and even though my marketing tools need tweaking, they've been running solid in bringing the work to me even in this economy. So here are some pictures of a little mural job I fit into my schedule this week at the new Broken Yolk Cafe in the Gaslamp, for everyone who wants to hear about hand painted murals and faux finish walls.

Per my usual, this painting project includes multiple elements of scale drawing, faux painting and aging techniques, and brand continuity-- everyone in San Diego probably recognizes their graphic from the flagship cafe in Pacific Beach.



The desired aged style of this piece was based on another San Diego restaurant mural project I did last year at the now all-new Lucky D's Bar & Grill.

Currant in San Diego Home and Garden

When I titled my last post "back to the restaurants" plural, I wasn't just talking about this summer's faux finishing work @ Lucky D's near the ballpark in San Diego's "East Village".

San Diego Home & Garden magazine just ran a feature in their September issue about San Diego's "growing sophistication" in restaurant & nightclub design and one of their stellar examples is Currant, the restaurant in downtown San Diego I worked on last summer-- here is my previous post about Currant from last September.

Here's the article cover and page featuring Currant from the actual magazine.





I will post clearer pictures of actual project in next post.

Back to the restaurants.....

September was a busy month for me and The Frame Maker, too, with much to report on many fronts.

Not only did I finally finish the trompe l'oeil children's circus mural that has dominated these posts all summer, my new friend Dave Egan finally opened the doors at his new bar Lucky D's, my other faux and trompe l'oeil painting project this summer here in San Diego.

I have a lot of good pictures of the progress of this job I will put up here, and I will start by expanding on my earlier posts on Lucky D's.

First here is an "in-between" shot of the faux painted brick corner.



You can also see some of the steps in the stencil work we used to create the painted wall paper effect, even clearer in the next two shots of the main part of the wall.





These pictures also reveal my secret weapon on this particular project, one of my new students, Coral, who worked on the stencil application of this painted finish. I met Coral and fellow painter Heather Diemand this spring-- Lucky D's was our first training project together.

Here's a shot of these two working on this finish with me this summer.



This last pic and the next one of yours truly were taken by very talented friend Mike Brown, who has documented a few of my projects for me now.



While Mike has also created magnificent digital images of my fine art painting for giclee printing purposes, his real work with the camera reaches far beyond that. Look for Mike's work in the San Diego edition of 944 and on his website at www.mikebrownportfolio.com.