By Christie Page (Local Garage Art Pusher)
So, you’re going to paint a mural on your garage door this summer.
f you’re not an artist, should you attempt to paint a mural by yourself? Absolutely! It’s a garage door, it’s blank, boring, and maybe old and ugly. You can’t possibly make it worse than what is there right now. A stick man, a flower, a hand print - anything is an improvement on doing nothing at all. If you want to improve upon your first concept you can paint over it. You can’t mess this up! If you don’t have a garage door? Look around and be creative – a fence, a shed, or ask your neighbour.
Should you sand and clean the door first? Probably wouldn’t hurt but I personally didn’t even wash off the current layer of dirt on my metal door before I painted it. It has been up since 2014 and is holding up well.
What paint should you use? Probably exterior paint is the way to go. Although some of the paint on my garage is proper exterior paint, this is just by chance. I just used what I had in my basement (interior, exterior, water based, oil based and even a little wood stain). I also grabbed a few colors from the return rack at local paint stores that were on a deep discount. If you have a garage door with a lot of south west hot sun exposure, paint choice might be more important.
How do you hire an artist? If you do want to hire an artist, you’re in luck because Calgary is full of talent! Expect to pay around $10/sq ft. Although established artists might charge more, someone just starting out might be willing to work for the cost of paint. If you ask for a pre design concept work, be prepared to pay the artist for this time, even if you don’t go ahead with the mural. Here are a few #YYCarts Instagram follows to help find an artist: @sunnyside_garage_art @sunnysidemurals @yycbump
If you have a high visibility location consider contacting Dexter with the Sunnyside Murals Project who is hoping to apply for a grant to hire 5 YYC artists to do new murals in Sunnyside this summer. He can be reached at dexter.sunnysidemurals@gmail.com
If you’re able to give a young artist just starting out a location to paint be in touch with Gerald gerald.wheatley@gmail.com He has helped facilitate connecting youth from the Alex to the ContainR lot and allowing them to build their portfolio. You would need to cover the costs of paint.
Can’t wait to see our out-door gallery grow this summer.
How to find art in Sunnyside: