The idea for this project was born out of Cory’s hatred, ok serious dislike, of the fence and how much of an eyesore it is. Our neighbors have it propped up, it doesn’t fully stand on its own and yet they don’t want his help to fix it either. So, we decided to block it off, obscure it from view in a pretty way. Cory decided we were making a mural.
We decided on an Asian theme following the Korean top inspired gate we made a few months ago. We have a lot of Korean family so we did that as a nod to them. The art would be Under the Wave off Kanagawa, or the Great Wave. It made sense to us for many reasons: Japanese woodblock prints were a great influence on the impressionist & post impressionist artists, who are some of my favorite artists. It also symbolizes the great fear of the west coast, the Big One, the tsunami. For that reason I painted Mt Hood in place of Mt Fuji and dory boats-what our local fishermen use- in place of the long boats in the picture. The colors are repeated through our yard in our flowerpots, bench swing, chimes, etc. It also reads well large and from far away.
Cory did the design for the whole build. He really is fantastic at this crazy stuff. I just had to paint. Painting something that large (4’x8’) was new for me and I didn’t want to spend a year doing it, so I went to www.ivebeenframedpdx.com (in person) and asked their advice. The whole thing is painted in acrylic (mostly Posca paint markers) and coated in polyurethane to seal it up. It’s hot and dry here right now, so it was a good time to get it done, hopefully it weathers well. More polyurethane can always be added!
The gate we built. Cory took a doodle I made and turned it into a gate. I helped but he was the real heavy-lifter. I think you can see why we weren’t crazy about the fence..
Cory finalized some details once the painting was mostly done.
I love the roof Cory made. He was just finishing it up here, about to weatherproof it.
Below are some potted flowers and herbs and unpotted azaleas and dahlias. The azaleas should really fill in the underneath well and add a lot of color! The whole thing took about 2 solid days of work. Worth it I think!
