It seems like every blog post I write starts out with “What a fun project!”, but this one truly was. Along with challenging, creative and great exercise. The young man who will occupy this room is a gymnast, and his simple request was for just the gymnastics equipment he uses to be painted on his walls. No cheering crowd, no Olympic references, no people at all.  In looking at photos of the equipment on line, I found that the bars, rings, vault, pommel horse and other equipment he uses in the pursuit of his passion, are fairly, well, just boring pictured alone. It’s the athlete and what he does on that equipment that is exciting, and if he didn’t want that part shown, it was going to be a pretty inartistic and boring room. I took some time to start thinking creatively, brainstormed some ideas, played with some paints and came up with a background for the equipment that has tremendous amounts of motion, depth and yet is not over the top with busyness and color. Layers of glazes, paints, brushwork, striping, stencils, and spatters of paint create all the motion and excitement in these teen boys room murals. The equipment is featured in a very painterly fashion to further show the enjoyment of the sport. There will be quite a bit of furniture in this small room, partially hiding portions of the equipment, but most of it will be very visible. He won’t get to see it until the room is all completed, new window treatments and lighting fixtures are planned to go along with his darker wood furniture. I think it’s going to look great, and hope he does too.