VIRGINIA TOURISM LOVE MURAL: PUBLIC ARTWORK & PRODUCTION

The contest required me to present the concept and graphics for the mural. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to create a landmark that has lasted for more than a decade and became a local cultural piece in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.

This was the color test the selected printer company did on the material. We were lucky to use a new tech that 3M released that year for adhesive hot vinyl that would mold itself to the brick. That was in 2013 and it still looks great after 11 years!

This project was asked from one day to the next, so my first traces and idea where the ones that made it in the mural. This sketches were vectorized and became the final graphics. The same week that I was asked for the application to the contest, this deer came home and when I was making tea in the kitchen window, looking out, I found it looking deeply at me and sort of talked with me for a bit. Its image stayed in my mind so deeply, that sketching its shape and stare was not complicated and it resulted in a filled with emotions sketch. That is why I didn't change a thing and later found a way to represent the wavy lands of Blacksburg, basically all mountains, wonderful forests and flowers. I loved being there and this artwork.

I was very honored and pleased when I knew from Melody Warnick that I appeared in her book! Especially for the sweet and invaluable comment on my Loving Blacksburg mural and the participation in community projects, creating more beautiful places to live through arts and participation in the common life of where one decides to live. Wonderful reading!

*Some of the images were lo-res, so I used AI to upscale them to fit the minimum size in this site, some look weird though.