Not Enough Canvas? No problemo!

As Salina and I (josh) got started working on mural designs, we decided to do a few different things:

a) The mural would be temporary, so that each year of seed project, we could invite a new artist to create an artwork in that space.

b) We would paint on canvas and attach it to the wall. Somos Semillas was planned in the Fall of 2020, when a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was in full force. We both agreed a canvas that we could cut and split up between our two studios would be an interesting way to make to create this work.

c) The installation would be collaborative: we would have prompts and pieces folks in the neighborhood can create to add to the mural themselves.

Check out some of our initial sketches below!

Somos Semillas: early composition sketch

hand sketches by Salina Almanzar

We were excited by our ideas and ready to move forward, but then we realized something: we didn’t have enough canvas to cover the whole wall! Our budget was tapped and that led us to put our heads together and think through another solution. The composition mock up below is what we came up with. We would hang our pieces like a salon style gallery. The Salon Style method of hanging is comprised of creating a “crowd” of paintings, both complimenting and juxtaposing one another. Works are placed in groups of different sizes, next to and above each other.

salon style composition study

We are so excited to put up these pieces on Memorial Day weekend! We’ll have plenty of activities and artworks for folks of all ages to make!