The squirrel that I painted on the second mural that John Kowalczyk and I made on the Beerline Trail this past fall. The squirrel is about 18 feet tall, and all spray paint.
Category Archives: Murals
Beerline Trail mural 1
John Kowalczyk and myself were commissioned by the Riverworks District to create a mural for Doors Open MKE this past September on the Beerline trail. We painted near the Abert street entrance to the trail. This was a lead up to the much larger mural they had us do on the trail a month later. We painted this 100 foot wall in about 5 hours during the doors open event, and had a little help from some of the community members. The colors and shapes coincide with the Riverworks logo.
The wall was in rough shape before we started, an assortment of corrugated metal that was pretty rusty and had a fair amount of graffiti on it. We came by a few days before hand after the brush was cleared and applied some pretty serious primer 
putting up the outlines
quick selfie break
Helpers blocking in color
Violet was a month and a day old and not too interested, but it was great that she came by. This kid will know about life if by nothing other than proximity.
Colors are in, time for the outlines
Using a few of the old school female cans for the outlines, just like painting trains
Finito!! This was a fun exercise, and great for John and I to work together leading up to the much larger mural in October.
Blue Jay Finished
We finished up the project and I think it looks great! Ben did a fantastic job on the nest, and the way he finished up the brick work is nuts, it pretty much disappears which was the goal.
Blue Jay Mural
Last fall while we were working on a different project Ben Stark and I talked about painting the other side of the building the calendar is on. The building owner was great about it and said we could do almost anything we wanted. During the winter we sat down and did some brain storming and came up with something we were both excited to paint. It took a little time to get started because of scheduling and procuring a lift.
End of day 1
Day two was a long one and had a lot of busy work, but we made some great progress.
Day three was a hot one, but we made some great progress, but it was our last day with the lift so I really needed to make my time count. With the slope of the ground it was pretty difficult to put up a ladder so I needed to have all the parts at the top finished by the end of the day.
Day four was a short one, I blocked in the rest of the tail feathers and started on the bricks, we will do some final touch ups on both.
Pabst Commission
Recently I was asked to paint a mural for the Pabst Brewing national sales convention. It was a fun project to work on and a great event to be apart of. The only issue was the weather which was a little sketchy, there were a few rain drops throughout the afternoon, but I was able to finish up before it ended up pouring that night.
Plus an in progress shot.
Lone Wolf
I painted this on the side of Rogues Gallery it might be my favorite mural to date.
Hole in the Wall
I have been playing with the idea of creating the illusion of depth and space in some of my recent paintings. I made a mock up for another mural that didn’t happen that employed these ideas and I was hooked. I am glad that I was able to make one of these at the size of a wall and I think this rough surface looks great.Hand cut stencils and spray paint.
Cardinal in Space
Quick mural from this summer.
Street Turtle
My studio mate and good friend Mark Gray asked me to help on this project. He had spoken with the commissioner of the Department of Public Works at the time that the city was working on the creation of Freshwater Way and the Reed Street Yards.
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They were looking for a street graphic for the entry to Freshwater Way. After numerous meetings we were able to create a great painting of a tortoise that coincides with the ideas of freshwater, conservation, and the flow of life.
33rd Street Mural
This summer I worked on a mural on 33rd street just off of Vliet Street. It was a collaborative project with Zenon Castillo who secured the wall, Ben Stark, and Eliot Patterson. Always a good time working with the homies. I was responsible for the gems and I also painted the grey scale lotus flowers.
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