WEBVTT 00:00:19.042 --> 00:00:26.261 - Hello, my name is Leoma Lovegrove and I'm a commercial artist from Sarasota, Florida. And you may wonder 00:00:26.261 --> 00:00:33.136 - how I got started with all of this. And I started out with a phone call from Idris Baker, who is in 00:00:33.136 --> 00:00:40.217 - charge of the beautification project sponsored by the PTO of Unionville, Indiana. And when she called, 00:00:40.217 --> 00:00:43.998 - she asked if I'd like to do one mural on a school hall 00:00:44.994 --> 00:00:52.597 - And so I told her I would call her back, and 15 minutes later, I made up my mind. And two weeks, after 00:00:52.597 --> 00:01:00.126 - two weeks, I was in Unionville. So we came, as soon as I got to her house, she drove me to the school 00:01:00.126 --> 00:01:07.951 - so I could take a look at the wall and get an idea of what I had to draw. So when we got into the hallway 00:01:07.951 --> 00:01:13.118 - downstairs, we're now upstairs, I said, well, Idris, what wall is it? 00:01:13.378 --> 00:01:20.947 - She kind of looked at me. She has a real cute grin. And she said, it's the hall. And all the blood kind 00:01:20.947 --> 00:01:28.297 - of rushed to my head. And it was a little bit scary because it just bare walls, not knowing what was 00:01:28.297 --> 00:01:35.793 - going to go on them was a little frightening to me. So I went back. She took me back to her house. And 00:01:35.793 --> 00:01:41.470 - I just wanted to get it off my mind. So two hours later, I came back and just 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:48.850 - closest wall to me and I sketched a panda. And I just kept sketching and sketching until it was all 00:01:48.850 --> 00:01:56.398 - sketched. And then after it was, and then after everything was sketched in, it was like a thousand pounds 00:01:56.398 --> 00:02:03.803 - was lifted off my shoulders. And then I started the painting procedure. It was until I did start adding 00:02:03.803 --> 00:02:09.214 - the color. And after being here a week all by myself, I asked her for help. 00:02:09.794 --> 00:02:16.153 - and the volunteers kept showing up and coming in with their paint brushes and doing anything they could 00:02:16.153 --> 00:02:22.267 - to help, even if it was making a cup of coffee or just giving them moral support. I think everybody 00:02:22.267 --> 00:02:28.442 - in Unionville took part in this creation. This is a cartoon of me that I sketched in towards the end 00:02:28.442 --> 00:02:33.822 - of the five weeks. It took two weeks to complete the downstairs murals, which, and, uh, 00:02:35.746 --> 00:02:43.299 - All together, there are 39 murals. There are more animals than that, but 39 individual murals. 00:02:43.299 --> 00:02:51.726 - So at the end, I decided that I got one walk to call my own. And so I didn't have it approved by anybody. 00:02:51.726 --> 00:02:59.756 - I just started sketching. And I do a cartoon of me. This represents my helpers with their paintbrush 00:02:59.756 --> 00:03:04.606 - and their paint. And towards the end, the mental frustration 00:03:04.738 --> 00:03:14.062 - working 15 hours a day and on my feet. I just broke down after I put helpers. I couldn't have made it 00:03:14.062 --> 00:03:23.295 - without you. And I really have grown to love the people here in Unionville. Without them, I honestly 00:03:23.295 --> 00:03:31.614 - couldn't have made it. So I look happy. I was happy the whole time, but at times I kind of 00:03:32.002 --> 00:03:39.823 - had a compassion for Michelangelo. I don't know the dripping of wax on your face, but I do know kind 00:03:39.823 --> 00:03:47.644 - of pretty much the mental strain and the physical pain he did go through. So when he did the Sistine 00:03:47.644 --> 00:03:55.542 - Chapel, this is my Sistine Chapel, even though I wasn't on landers. This wall happens to be one of my 00:03:55.542 --> 00:03:57.246 - favorites. These four 00:03:58.466 --> 00:04:05.066 - people who I grew to know and love here at Unionville School and they gave me moral support, 00:04:05.066 --> 00:04:12.517 - a cup of coffee, they painted for me, they everything. They brought my lunch and they just really worked 00:04:12.517 --> 00:04:19.613 - around the clock right with me. And I won't mention any names but Terry and these all reflect their 00:04:19.613 --> 00:04:24.510 - personalities and she's always got her mouth going 24 miles an hour. 00:04:24.706 --> 00:04:30.792 - And this is a teacher who she always has that stunned face. She's always into everything, but she's 00:04:30.792 --> 00:04:36.999 - always, you know, surprised at what's going on. And this is a real dear friend of mine. And she wears 00:04:36.999 --> 00:04:43.267 - her hair up in a knot. So I put the knot up there. And she's always got something burning in the fire. 00:04:43.267 --> 00:04:49.657 - And I have her getting ready to jump out of the nest. She's ready to get everything. And this is another 00:04:49.657 --> 00:04:51.422 - secretary. She's one of the, 00:04:51.586 --> 00:05:00.112 - Those dear people who, when she talks, she expresses herself with her hands. She doesn't even need any 00:05:00.112 --> 00:05:08.720 - words. Her feet and hands are going constantly. And these are my pals. Notice the border that surrounds 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:13.438 - the murals on the upstairs, murals. I decided to put in, 00:05:13.730 --> 00:05:19.917 - a border around everything so it would make everything tie in. And so it just wouldn't be a picture 00:05:19.917 --> 00:05:26.103 - here and a picture there. I wanted it to all work as one composition. And downstairs I used bamboo, 00:05:26.103 --> 00:05:32.538 - which really turned out nice. And I wanted to use something different up here since it was the Northern 00:05:32.538 --> 00:05:38.786 - Hemisphere animals. And so I just thought of my favorite vine, which happened to be a morning glory. 00:05:38.786 --> 00:05:43.550 - Morning glory vine going all the way around. And it surrounds every picture. 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:54.012 - Should I go this way? Boy, it seems like just a short distance to walk. These halls got a little bit 00:05:54.012 --> 00:06:02.955 - longer every day. Down at the end of the hall is a jaguar. And in a way, he was the most simplest animal 00:06:02.955 --> 00:06:11.642 - to draw and paint. Everything just, he's one of those paintings, everything just came out smooth. The 00:06:11.642 --> 00:06:15.390 - drawing was right, the paint went on right. 00:06:15.522 --> 00:06:21.937 - And he didn't quite take his long. And I wanted to get a really nice effect with him since he's at the 00:06:21.937 --> 00:06:28.291 - end of the hall. And I wanted to use something with strength. Like to me, he represents strength. And 00:06:28.291 --> 00:06:34.768 - he was in the first animals on the second floor that I completed. And I figured if I just had something 00:06:34.768 --> 00:06:41.059 - to look back at, you know, I was down at the end of the hall painting, to give me a little energy or 00:06:41.059 --> 00:06:44.734 - give me some strength, this would be the thing to look at. 00:06:44.866 --> 00:06:51.984 - So I put the jaguar there and everybody loves them. They used to call him a cougar because before his 00:06:51.984 --> 00:06:59.032 - spots were in, he looked exactly like a cougar or a mountain lion without the spots. I've learned so 00:06:59.032 --> 00:07:06.081 - much about the anatomy of animals. I completed a wildlife endangered species series before I came up 00:07:06.081 --> 00:07:11.454 - here to do the murals. And so my knowledge of the anatomy on the animals was 00:07:12.386 --> 00:07:25.406 - That was fairly good, but I can't believe how much more I've learned just being up here and doing these. 00:07:25.406 --> 00:07:36.318 - This is a picture of the snake, which was requested by all the boys here at the school. 00:07:36.482 --> 00:07:42.832 - They always would come up to me, where's the snake? Where's the snake? And so I put it up above the 00:07:42.832 --> 00:07:49.436 - drinking fountain so they would be sure to miss it. And in the beginning, I've never really been around 00:07:49.436 --> 00:07:55.786 - children. And during the painting of the second floor, schools and sessions, so all at once I found 00:07:55.786 --> 00:08:02.326 - myself surrounded by a million kids all asking the same question at once, which was, how long have you 00:08:02.326 --> 00:08:05.374 - been painting? How long have you been painting? 00:08:05.666 --> 00:08:12.486 - Sometimes I ask them what time was it. Or I'd say, you know, like I've been painting as long as I can 00:08:12.486 --> 00:08:19.574 - remember, which I have. I remember his first drawing even before I got in the first grade. And my biggest 00:08:19.574 --> 00:08:26.394 - influence as a teacher was Richard Weil, my grade school teacher. And he always seemed to really work 00:08:26.394 --> 00:08:33.950 - with me. And I learned perspective when I was in the third grade. And I just learned so much about drawing then. 00:08:34.338 --> 00:08:41.519 - And I've always, I can't think of anything else I've wanted to do but paint. So when I graduated high 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:48.630 - school, I went to Ringling School of Arts in Sarasota, Florida. And it was a three-year program, and 00:08:48.630 --> 00:08:55.671 - I went into the commercial art field. I might add about the school, I started out with about 250 in 00:08:55.671 --> 00:09:03.838 - my class, and they ask you back each term, and I graduated with 40 people. They only allow 40 to graduate per year. 00:09:05.122 --> 00:09:12.442 - And I've studied under, I've had private lessons from many different people and my mother also was a 00:09:12.442 --> 00:09:20.124 - big influence on me. She's an artist and she paints maybe 20 pictures a day literally and she just paints 00:09:20.124 --> 00:09:27.444 - all the time. So being around that and plus my love for it, I've always wanted to be an artist and I 00:09:27.444 --> 00:09:33.822 - guess that's what I am. This is a walrus. I was going to dedicate this to my father but 00:09:34.018 --> 00:09:42.332 - I didn't want to be too mean. But he was another one I did when I first got up here on the second floor. 00:09:42.332 --> 00:09:50.012 - And there was something I was going to say, but I can't remember right now. You had a dream? Oh, 00:09:50.012 --> 00:09:51.358 - the dream, yeah. 00:09:51.938 --> 00:09:57.445 - Every night, I would go home after work. And while I was up here, the janitors were here till midnight, 00:09:57.445 --> 00:10:02.953 - so I stayed till midnight. And when I'd get home, I would just be so worked up, I couldn't stop drawing 00:10:02.953 --> 00:10:08.354 - to myself. And I painted paintings. I just couldn't put it down. That's all I thought about it. I had 00:10:08.354 --> 00:10:13.809 - a one-track mind. And I think I was even a nuisance to people. That's all I could talk about. Hey, you 00:10:13.809 --> 00:10:19.210 - see the tiger over there? He goes, come over here. Come over here. But anyway, so I was dreaming. And 00:10:19.210 --> 00:10:20.958 - I had a dream about this walrus. 00:10:21.442 --> 00:10:28.136 - And he turned around. He came literally off the wall. I was down here painting. And he literally turned 00:10:28.136 --> 00:10:34.765 - his head off the wall and looked at me and said, a little highlight on my tail, please. And I woke up. 00:10:34.765 --> 00:10:41.587 - I go, this is it. So I got up and had a cup of coffee. And I finished him later. In fact, the last thing, 00:10:41.587 --> 00:10:48.088 - he was the last touch I practically did. I finished his eye. And I didn't give him any highlights on 00:10:48.088 --> 00:10:49.182 - his tail either. 00:10:50.466 --> 00:11:20.222 - The eagle, I feel, is one of my favorite murals here. To me, he represents power and the freedom. 00:11:20.834 --> 00:11:30.125 - even though he is our nation bird. I really like him a lot. As I put the border around all the other 00:11:30.125 --> 00:11:39.691 - murals, I didn't put them around him because I just really wanted him to stand out and I wanted to keep 00:11:39.691 --> 00:11:48.062 - the wall simple, fairly simple, so all you saw was him and nothing would detract from him. 00:11:48.930 --> 00:11:55.816 - it was important that all the animals had nice faces. Because the kids, I didn't realize how small kids 00:11:55.816 --> 00:12:02.701 - were. And when they got up here and I saw them next to the animals, they were just so overpowering that 00:12:02.701 --> 00:12:09.388 - I realized how important the faces were, you know, important how, I realized how important it was to 00:12:09.388 --> 00:12:15.678 - have nice faces and kind faces on all the animals. But in this case, I put him more realistic. 00:12:16.514 --> 00:12:26.061 - And I don't feel that this really scares them. They know how powerful it is. This is a baby mountain 00:12:26.061 --> 00:12:35.513 - gorilla. And it is on the endangered species list. And there's only a few family groups. And when I 00:12:35.513 --> 00:12:45.438 - did my endangered species series before I came here and did the murals, this was one of the first ones I 00:12:45.538 --> 00:12:51.811 - I did, so, and it really made me learn and really get interested in the endangered species. And this 00:12:51.811 --> 00:12:58.085 - is my favorite, one of my favorites, the first floor, because he's, the fur, the fur is painted in a 00:12:58.085 --> 00:13:04.420 - lot nicer. By the time I got here, I had had a little bit more experience with the walls, the texture 00:13:04.420 --> 00:13:09.886 - of the walls. It's not like painting on paper, and you don't use a, a real brush, I do. 00:13:10.562 --> 00:13:19.129 - Here I'm starting to get the feeling of the walls and the animals are just now starting to go a little 00:13:19.129 --> 00:13:27.612 - bit smoother. And if you can see the bamboo which surrounds, surrounds the bulletin boards, the doors 00:13:27.612 --> 00:13:36.012 - and each picture. This is to make everything tie in once again and make the composition work. I like 00:13:36.012 --> 00:13:40.254 - the bamboo. Okay, over here. Okay. Here we have a, 00:13:40.482 --> 00:13:47.186 - a zebra and there's four zebras together. And if I'd have to have it, if I could do it over again, I 00:13:47.186 --> 00:13:54.155 - would just do one mainly because of the lines. Uh, it was very hard to keep a straight line on the walls 00:13:54.155 --> 00:14:01.058 - and there were so many lines in the zebras and they had to be in there to make it, make them effective. 00:14:01.058 --> 00:14:07.828 - And, uh, this one proportionally is a little off cause I was trying to get more of a perspective look 00:14:07.828 --> 00:14:09.886 - on it when you like look back. 00:14:10.082 --> 00:14:20.023 - at it. Some people like it and some people don't. I like it. This one here. This zebra here has to be 00:14:20.023 --> 00:14:29.866 - one of the most comical animals here in the school. When I first did it I didn't realize how awkward 00:14:29.866 --> 00:14:35.518 - it did look and one day a woman walked by and she came up 00:14:35.618 --> 00:14:42.199 - to it like this and measured. She says, I'm on a diet and the nerve of that thing to turn around and 00:14:42.199 --> 00:14:48.846 - wink at me, you know. And I just died. So I enlarged it just a little bit more so everybody could get 00:14:48.846 --> 00:14:55.362 - the same feeling because it seems like everybody's on diets. And so everybody comes by and measures 00:14:55.362 --> 00:15:00.510 - to see if they're really that big. And the reason I really did put him winking 00:15:01.058 --> 00:15:06.949 - is because I tried five or ten times to match the eye up over here. And so one day I was just running 00:15:06.949 --> 00:15:12.782 - down the hall and I stopped and looked at it and I just made it winking and I took off down the hall 00:15:12.782 --> 00:15:18.904 - to finish something else. But that's why he's winking. We have two more over here who, the one's drinking 00:15:18.904 --> 00:15:24.853 - out of the water and the other one's trying to get a leaf off the tree. They were a little complicated 00:15:24.853 --> 00:15:28.318 - to do but after they were finished I guess it was worth it. 00:15:31.138 --> 00:15:36.642 - One of my helpers put in the grass and she was so careful to make sure all the lines were in because 00:15:36.642 --> 00:15:42.091 - I sketched them in. And I asked her if she thought I needed grass and she said yes, there should be 00:15:42.091 --> 00:15:47.758 - grass in there. And so after I sketched them in, I handed her the paintbrush and it took her four hours 00:15:47.758 --> 00:15:53.534 - to paint them in. And she did such a good job, I didn't even outline them, I just kept them as they were. 00:16:02.466 --> 00:16:10.606 - Tigers that you see here kind of have a special meaning to me. It represents family. And in a way, I've 00:16:10.606 --> 00:16:18.667 - dedicated this to the Baker family, who is whom I stayed with during my five weeks here. They welcomed 00:16:18.667 --> 00:16:26.651 - me into their home and accepted me as part of their family. And without them, I would never have been 00:16:26.651 --> 00:16:32.286 - able to make it. Coming in at midnight and everybody put up with a lot. 00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:42.412 - And this is just, as I said, it represents family and the love and the unity. And it's something which 00:16:42.412 --> 00:16:51.083 - I shared with her while I was staying with them. And they were all really great. Over here we have a 00:16:51.083 --> 00:16:59.754 - few monkeys, chimpanzees. This was the first one I did. I did the panda murals in the beginning. And 00:16:59.754 --> 00:17:03.102 - they were the first things I sketched. 00:17:03.490 --> 00:17:10.652 - I sketched it in the monkeys. And this one is on a tree, and he's fumbling around with the leaves. And 00:17:10.652 --> 00:17:17.606 - the other one up here is kind of looking out and kind of wondering what's going on. And this is the 00:17:17.606 --> 00:17:24.629 - baby monkey, one of the teachers here. Every time she walks by it, she has to scratch his tummy. She 00:17:24.629 --> 00:17:31.166 - just loves him. And the expressions, I was really pleased the way the expressions turned out. 00:17:31.458 --> 00:17:38.126 - With most of the animals, they have almost a humanistic quality about them. And as I said before, it 00:17:38.126 --> 00:17:44.728 - is important to have faces on the animals pleasant and gentle, you know, for the kids so they won't 00:17:44.728 --> 00:17:51.330 - scare them. But I really enjoy doing this one. Now, this is the first fur I really attempted to put 00:17:51.330 --> 00:17:58.526 - on the lines. It took a long time to get the fur the way I wanted it to work. As I progressed down the hall, 00:17:58.722 --> 00:18:05.261 - And as I did five, six more murals, I realized add a little water to the paint. Don't use so much paint. 00:18:05.261 --> 00:18:11.488 - Simplify it. It doesn't have to be that great of detail. But in another sense, it does have to be a 00:18:11.488 --> 00:18:17.965 - lot of detail. Painting, you always have to stand fairly far back to look at it. And when these murals, 00:18:17.965 --> 00:18:24.317 - you know, they should, the hall should be three times as wide. And so you could really stand back and 00:18:24.317 --> 00:18:25.438 - really get a good 00:18:25.634 --> 00:18:31.936 - could have a good view of them. But since you are right on top of them, they did have to be more or 00:18:31.936 --> 00:18:38.427 - less pretty detailed. And then we have the birds. And I would have loved to just take the time to just 00:18:38.427 --> 00:18:44.981 - put like ants and bees and birds and all kinds of things all over the trees. But the time didn't permit 00:18:44.981 --> 00:18:48.510 - and also simplicity was important as far as the design. 00:18:58.818 --> 00:19:05.856 - These are my friendly giraffes which stand at the end of the hall. Since I couldn't get them life size, 00:19:05.856 --> 00:19:12.624 - I figured this would be the best place to place them since they look bigger standing back. And they 00:19:12.624 --> 00:19:19.527 - all have the eyelashes and they're all very feminine. Giraffes are one of my favorite animals. I just 00:19:19.527 --> 00:19:26.632 - really like them. It took two weeks to complete the down, the first floor of Union Mill School and three 00:19:26.632 --> 00:19:28.798 - weeks to complete the upstairs. 00:19:29.314 --> 00:19:36.464 - With all the help, there must have been at least 75 people come out and offer their time. The employers 00:19:36.464 --> 00:19:43.751 - here at the school were great. They'd come in at night and wax the floors and the secretaries were great. 00:19:43.751 --> 00:19:50.694 - Everybody just really had a big part in everything in it. And without them, these wouldn't have even 00:19:50.694 --> 00:19:56.606 - been possible. Even though I've painted 39 murals for the Unionville School, it just, 00:19:56.930 --> 00:20:03.892 - can never compare to what they've given me. In the process of doing these, I've gained patience, which 00:20:03.892 --> 00:20:10.921 - I've always worked for, worked at. I never really had it, but I think I have acquired a little bit more 00:20:10.921 --> 00:20:18.220 - patience, tolerance, a world of knowledge of art, a further knowledge of the world of art, and the animals, 00:20:18.220 --> 00:20:24.979 - the anatomy, just everything. And one thing I gained were the friendships of all the people here in 00:20:24.979 --> 00:20:25.790 - Unionville. 00:20:26.658 --> 00:20:36.882 - and a better understanding of people. And if I had to do it all over again, I'd do it the same way. 00:20:36.882 --> 00:20:47.310 - There's nothing I'd leave out or put in. And it was all, it just really meant a lot to me. Down here, 00:20:47.310 --> 00:20:53.342 - after I finished the five weeks here at Unionville School, 00:20:54.274 --> 00:21:01.857 - I want to do something for myself that I would remember, that I would remember everything. And so here 00:21:01.857 --> 00:21:09.365 - we have a composite of a cartoon of me with a bird sitting on my shoulder and all the animals looking 00:21:09.365 --> 00:21:17.169 - at me and I'm smiling and I got the paintbrush in my hand and most of these animals are in their original 00:21:17.169 --> 00:21:19.230 - poses that are on the wall. 00:21:23.682 --> 00:21:30.394 - I'm just really glad that I could be a part of their beautification project. And I'm really glad I received 00:21:30.394 --> 00:21:34.558 - that phone call from Edis Baker that day. And thank you very much.