49, 53 and Beyond Kids Mural

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Susan Gromala Crary helped home school students design and then execute a Pulse themed mural in the stairwell leading up to the studio where Michael Pilato and Yuriy Karabash painted a pule mural that now hangs next to a  laundromat on Washington Street across from Dexter’s in Thornton park. Chimene Pindar Hurst asked Michael and Yuriy to come to Orlando to work on the mural. I do not believe that the mural is permanently installed in Thornton Park and I am not sure of where it will finally reside.

The children’s stairwell mural however is a permanent fixture at the Colonial and Mills Avenue studio above the pizza joint. While painting the mural a can of yellow paint was spilled, and rather than get upset, they incorporated the yellow paint into the overall design. Yellow hand prints and puddles of yellow can be found  all  the way up the steps.

The home school students sang as they worked. One student used a tiny brush to paint in her section of the mural. Susan said that was her style. Inspirational phrases swirled around the myriad of rainbow colored hearts. It was inspiring to see the community come together to help make this studio pace livable and to paint bright colors to try and help the city heal.

Inspiration Mural stairwell.

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Michael Pilato from Philadelphia and Yuri Karabash from the Ukraine used the second floor studio space above Anthony’s Pizza as a place to paint the first mural devoted to the 49 victims of the Pulse tragedy. Chimene Pindar Hurst arranged for home school students to paint a mural up the narrow staircase leading to the studio. Susan Gromala Crary, an artist who has done murals on Disney property, volunteered to get the kids started on the project.

She had each student do small thumbnail sketches of ideas they wanted included in the mural. Since social media like twitter and Facebook are so important to the kids, she found that the power of words had to be incorporated. Ultimately large flowers were painted with 49 heart shaped pedals. A rainbow exploded it’s bright colors up the steps. Then words were incorporated like inspire, and positive.

Any creative endeavor has its setbacks and happy accidents. While painting a large section of the rainbow, a cup of bright yellow paint spilled on the steps. Rather than getting upset about the spill, Susan encouraged the kids to incorporate the yellow into the overall design and concept. Each student dipped their hand in the puddle and hand prints were placed on each step. A videographer recorded the afternoon of creative working and singing. Each painter had their own technique which Susan encouraged. One girl used tiny strokes with a tiny brush to fill in sections of the mural. She persisted and completed the work. In the end that is what matters most, something new and unexpected was created.

Pulse Stairway Mural.

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Michael Pilato and Yoriy Karbash have been working on a large multi panel Pulse Mural in a second floor walk up studio above Anthony’s Pizza on the corner of Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive. The mural will be on display at Pulse at 2am on June 12 and then Lake Eola near the band shell later that day.

Artist Susan Gromala Crary volunteered to help home schooled Kids paint the mural leading up the steps. The kids small sketches on the first day of possible ideas, and Susan all those ideas to build a cohesive concept. Strips blue painter’s marked the upper reaches of the mural. Using ochre paint, Susan sketched in the biggest elements of the mural which consisted of flowers with heart shaped pedals. There were to be 49 shaped pedals in all. stood at the base of the staircase count and view The overall design. Once some students arrived, Susan assigned one the important task of double checking her numbers.

A single desk clipped to a board acted as the of illumination, along with the open door. Some pedestrians saw Susan staring up the staircase, and they had to look for themselves. I was impressed with how fast the design took shape. Once all the kids started adding color, the process really accelerated.

Homeschoolers learn about the Inspiration Project.

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Michael Pilato came to Orlando shortly after the horrific shooting that killed 49 people who were celebrating life. Michael is a muralist and his murals colorfully show family of victims, survivors and first responders who were affected by the tragedy. This coming June 12th will mark one year since that fatal night. The mural panels are nearing completion and a second mural for UCF is about to begin.

The home schoolers visited The studio which is above Anthony’s Pizza on the corner of Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue. The students lead by Susan Gromala Crary, were about to paint murals up the stairways to the studio. Michael showed samples of past murals to inspire the students and then they gathered in a group and sketched out possible concepts to the stairway. Hearts were a recurring theme and also many words of hope. The students text often and words are their primary means of expressing their feelings. Susan took the sketches ant thoughts back to her studio and helped tie them all together into a cohesive whole. The day was good for collaboration and seeing how individuals can come together and creative something that any one of them might not have conceived. It was inspiring to see Susan interact with the kids and they all pulled together to create something unexpected.

Susan has an opening coming up April 29th called  Pedestrian: Moments in Blue at The Gatlin Creative, 4940 Orange Ave S, Orlando, Florida 32806. Music Preformance by: Old School Misfits.

The show is a study of the artistic experience that
can not be mass produced. The series celebrates the moments when an
artist is in their element. The paintings are a tribute to the passion
and creative drive of the artist that some might consider pedestrian; or
art happenings that sometimes may be discarded or overlooked as art.
Ms. Gromala journeyed throughout the central Florida
region to paint live at each art event with usually two hours to
capture moments as it occurred. The process of live painting creates the
sketchy loose and energetic feel which allows the viewer to be a part
of each event through Susan’s perspective of the artist. Her preference
to utilize the color blue is a symbolic nod to the “blue collar”
element. It also stems from her passion for monochromatic imagery and
the color of Prussian Blue. A highlight of Susan’s style is the manner
in which she celebrates each drip and errant brush stroke that can occur
in a live painting. These marks are purposefully included as part of
each piece to enable a connection to the action and energy present
during the happening as it was being captured on canvas. Therefore,
creating a painting style emoting a sense of honest reaction to each of
these unique artist moment

49, 53 and Beyond Children’s Mural.

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Michael Pilato a mural artist from Philadelphia has come to Orlando to create a series of murals dedicated to the 49, 53 and beyond who were directly affected by the tragic shooting at Pulse nightclub. He has moved into the empty apartment above Tony’s pizzeria on the corner of Mills and Colonial. This run down apartment was formerly known as “The Space” and has been the location for quite a few cutting edge exhibits and performances. Volunteers have been working tirelessly to make the space livable. New floors are being put in, along with a new sink and cabinets. Piles of scrap wood were piled in the hall, waiting to be taken to the dump. There was no air conditioning and some window panes were broken and missing. Michael was bitten by mosquitoes on his first night in the space.  The groundwork for this artist studio is a true labor of love.

Long narrow staircases lead up to the space. Chimene Pindar Hurst came up with the idea of having home school students create a mural on the walls of the front stairwell. Susan Gromala Crary has done murals on Disney property and she stepped in to spearhead the project. Day one had the children sketching and writing ideas on paper. The kids wanted to sling paint from the start, but Susan assured them that they needed a unified plan before paint touched the walls.  They circled up to share ideas and chat while they worked. The moms sat on the opposite end of the room, also chatting. Susan took all the sheets of paper home to her studio to create a unified concept that incorporated all the separate ideas.

When the kids were finished, Susan sat with them and enthusiastically let them know which ideas inspired her the most.  She collected all the sketches and notes and the conversation she had with the kids gave her a definite idea of how to proceed. Words are very important to these kids because of texting and the internet. Therefor words of love and inspiration would weave themselves in to the visual tapestry of the mural. The plan was to have the kids come in weekly to get the mural painted.