Face Painting at Mia's 1st Birthday!

Last weekend I had the priviledge of painting all of these adorable faces at Little Miss Mia's first birthday party! There were about 40 kids there and they all waited so patiently to have their faces painted I was truly impressed! Nice job guys! Here are some of the pictures:




You can check out the rest of them here.

If you are interesting in having me come paint faces at your child's birthday please feel free to contact me!

Window Paintings

At my "real job" I sit behind a big glass window that seperates my desk from a small waiting area. Just a big blank window. So boring. I couldn't take it. So, for well over a year now I've been decorating said window using dry-erase markers. My designs started out simple, "Go Sox!", "Happy Holidays!" and then started to grow in complexity. I added cartoon characters, bubble letters, exclamation points but the result was always the same no matter what I drew...just dry-erase scribbles on glass, it wasn't doing it for me. That's when I had the idea to paint the window, you know, like car dealerships do when they're have a HUGE SALE!!!

Here's this month's picture it's a combo Celtics/St. Patrick's Day theme:











And this is last month's, a Valentine's scene with Pepe Le Pew and his love interest Penelope:

Ahhhhhh!  That's better!

New Stuff on Etsy!!

I have been painting my little heart out recently to restock my Etsy store.

Here are some of the new pieces up! Let me know what you think!

www.mandeerae.etsy.com

Happy shopping!

Website LIVE!!!

My website is alive and kickin'!!  Still have to fill in some information here and there but at least it's up and running!  Go check it out and click on stuff!

http://www.mandeepaints.com/

Let me know if you have any feedback!  

Thanks!!

Business Cards

My business cards came in the mail last night!  So excited!!

These pictures don't really do them justice but just to give you an idea:

That's a picture of me when I was 3...I had a pretty serious necklace game. 

Website Under Construction

I've commissioned a friend of mine, Geoff Buck, to make my website. He's a very talented designer and illustrator who also happens to be quite handy with html, lucky for me! You can check him out here.

So far it's just an "under construction" page but you can get the idea here:

www.mandeepaints.com

Can't wait to see the finished product!!

And Matilda was her name-o!

She's here! She's here!! Baby Girl Rubin has come in to the world and her name is:
No, it's not John Hancock.....it's Matilda Zoey Rubin.


I love it! She was born bright and early as babies tend to be; both Mom and baby are doing well. I was supplied a key to get in and paint her name while the family rests and gets ready for the big homecoming. No-one was happier about that than Beckett, the family dog. (Yes, Beckett, like the pitcher, these are some serious fans!)


Here are some more shots of the Jumbotron & Matilda's custom jersey:



Congratulations guys!! Can't wait to meet the little lady!!

A Ballpark for Baby Girl X

I got my second Fenway request a couple weeks ago. This time though, it's for a little girl's nursery. Awwww. I LOVE it when people can, pardon the expression, think out of the box! Not that I have anything against pastel pinks and fluffy bunnies, I'm actually quite partial to both, but there's something truly unique about painting the Green Monster on a baby girl's wall. Something that makes me want to burn my bra and get my commercial driver's license! Or at least it makes me proud to be a girl...I think I'll keep my bra.

This Fenway, like it's predecessor, is chock full of personalized bits and pieces that make it a true original.

Here are some of the bits:

Charlie Brown in the bleachers;

The family name slapped right on the Monster;

Snoopy, Bob Dylan, a wolf & Kermit on the Jumbotron (which has been left blank until Baby Girl Rubin arrives, until then, her true identity will remain a mystery).

And here are some of the pieces:

Love replaces Gulf on a well known ad;

Some fans show their love for their favorite player...awww;

and this being New England after all how could we not include Dunky's, I mean really.

I had such a wonderful time painting this mural! The Rubin's were as nice as could be and made me feel more like a celebrity than hired help. Such a great couple to work with; they are going to make wonderful parents to Baby Girl Rubin! I just hope she likes baseball.

Here's Robyn & I messing around on day 2. See the rest of the pictures here.

Mark & Steph's Ark (feat. Noah)

Finally!  Finally someone asked me to paint them an ark.  I tell you, it is about d*mn time!  All I do is sit and draw smiley faced animals all day long (and work Rochelle, I swear!) and wait for someone to see them all and say, "you know what would be a good project for you..."  And finally someone did!!  Grandma-to-be Sheila hired me to paint this ark in her son & daughter-in-law's nursery in New Hampshire for Baby Sam who's due later this winter.   I started with the sketch:

And after a quick peak at that Gramma decided we'd add an elephant, some ducks, a couple of dolphins and some lobsters for good luck!  Here it is before the giraffes poked their heads through:  

And after seen here with Steph (and technically Baby Sam):

Here are some close-ups of my favorite characters:

**progress pictures here: www.kodakgallery.com/mandeepaints/main/noah_s_ark **

Super Mario Bros. 3

So fun!! A young couple living in the Piano Factory Lofts in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston asked me to paint their door to look like a scene shot from Mario 3!! Best idea ever!!

Here it is before and after:



It was so much fun to paint and everyone in the building kept stopping by and telling us their own Mario stories. It was a really fun day. Here's Brook, the proud owner of a customized front door, helping me paint. She wanted to, I didn't make her, honest!


And some close up shots of the final product!


**progress pictures here: www.kodakgallery.com/mandeepaints/main/mario_bros **

5 Senses continued

I went back to work after lunch and I'm happy to report the room kind of just came together after that.


The characters came easily and I was able to finish the room by the end of the week; a couple of hours here and there. Joan couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating during the process which made things a lot easier. Here are some of the finished pictures:

Progress pictures here.

5 senses

Recently I was commishioned by the parents of the 2007 graduating class of Five Senses Pre-School to paint the bathroom of their beloved school as a present for Joan, everyone's favorite pre-school teacher/owner/boo-boo kisser. I was told it was a small bathroom, half tiled and that they'd like an ocean scene painted in it. "Great!", I thought, "I bet I could get that done in a weekend!"

That was not the first time I've completely underestimated a job.


Here's the first day & a half:


Blank walls...I'm back at the Alamo:


This time though I somehow remained calm (after a small freak out)
and decided to start on the ceiling (and to wear my jammies apparently):

...12 hours later all the water was done and my arm was numb:

The next day, smelling of IcyHot, I went back bright and early to finish the background

layers and sand. I'm at the halfway point!:

At this point, possibly stemming from the fact that the icy/hotness of the morning only proved to aggrivate my shoulder pain, I was starting to convince myself that the room was done. It was after all an ocean scene already...maybe they wouldn't notice there aren't any animals...pre-schoolers don't even like cartoons. Clearly the talk of a girl who needs a sandwich and some motrin.

Paul Levy blogged about me!

Oh man! It might be ridiculous that I'm so excited about this but Paul Levy, the head honcho over at Beth Israel, blogged about my Green Monster mural over on his blog!

Check it out!

Thanks Paul!

Green Monstah, kehd!

How's this for incredible? One weekend 8-year-old Andrew's parents took him to Florida from his native New Hampshire to go to Disney World. Amazing, right? But that's not the story I'm telling. The story I'm telling is that while he was away his parents hired me to paint Fenway's famous Green Monster (pronounced "Monstah") on their Red-Sox-loving son's wall.
If you're from around here then I don't have to tell you how important Boston sports teams are to New Englanders- and that is never more true than with the World Champion Boston Red Sox. You can hate the city, you can hate the weather, you can even hate the people but just about everyone draws the line at hating the Red Sox. It's just not done.
That being said, Andrew is in for a suprise of a lifetime! Over the course of a weekend my faithful assistant Liz, seen here "helping":

and I transformed Andrew's boring blue room into a night game at Fenway. Complete with stadium lighting & a few of his favorite things on the megatron: McDonald's, Bubble Yum and Gatorade.
Here's the finished product:

Jeremy helped out a little too:

On the adjacent wall I painted his closet door to look like a locker, complete with lock and Andrew's very own Red Sox jersey with his number on it!

Andrew was SO suprised! Here he is adding the final touch, a baseball themed light switch cover made by Liz:

progress pictures here www.kodakgallery.com/mandeepaints/main/green_monstah

Yes, We're Open!

My etsy store is now open and ready for business!!

http://www.mandeerae.etsy.com/

Come check it out and let me know what you think!

Practice Makes Perfect

I made an offer to my co-workers: if you pay for my supplies, I'll paint your kid's rooms for free. A reasonable offer and we both win because I get to practice painting on actual walls and they get a custom mural for next to nothing.

The second person to take me up on this offer has 3 children: twin 3-year-olds, Jenna and Kyle and a 5-year-old girl, Brooke. Their Mom decided to let each child decide what would be painted on their wall. It was fun working with them to come up with designs. In the end...

Brooke wanted a garden:

Jenna chose a Safari:

And Kyle wanted a football stadium:

I painted those 3 murals in one day. The thing about painting 3 murals in one day, I found out, is that you shouldn't do it. Especially if you have to navigate painting the rooms between 3 children that all want to help, outfit changes (Jenna's a superstar), bed-times and my own decreasing stamina. I considered finishing the last mural of the day the following week but really didn't want Kyle to feel left out since both of his sisters had already had their room's painted that day. Can you imagine how long a week is to a 3-year-old? Yikes!

All-in-all a great experience. The entire family was awesome to work with and I had a great time customizing their rooms and playing on the slip-n-slide at lunch!!

progress pictures here www.kodakgallery.com/mandeepaints/main/garden_mural

Jungle Mural

I stared at that slate-sage-green-grey wall for about an hour doubting myself and finding reasons why I couldn't get started. I was thristy. Maybe I should go buy a Diet Coke. I needed something from the truck. Had to go to the bathroom. Where's my apron? Why did I wear these shoes? Are they going to stand there and watch me the whole time? It's not to late to run. Before I finally summoned up the courage to draw my design on the wall...in chalk first. Baby steps.

Hmm, that was easy. Now to add paint...

Oh, hey, whaddya know? I remember how to do this. Once I got started, the room came together relatively quickly- 9 hours from start to finish. Of course, I couldn't have done it without Katie's (the grandma-to-be) un-wavering support and fits of giggles followed with, "I love it! It's so cute!" All-in-all, I'd say it was a relatively painless experience...and not a fart cloud in sight!

more pictures of the mural in progress at: www.kodakgallery.com/mandeepaints/main/jungle_mural

First Mural

It seemed like forever waiting for the day to come when I would paint my first mural. I was like a 3 year old waiting for Christmas but this was a Christmas that could be very hard on a person's ego. What if I've bitten off more than I can chew? Can I really do this? I'm no artist. I was able to keep those feelings at bay for a while, that is until I saw this:


It's a terrible picture of the space but picture taking is proving to be more challenging than painting for me right now. The space is a small room in a basement apartment. Freshly dry-walled, painted a lovely slate-sage (if that color even exists) and staring at me blankly. I'm at the Alamo and it's high-noon, the moment of truth. God I hope I can do this.

Where's the panic button on this thing?

OMG! I got my first mural job! I'm so excited! Though technically for it to be a job I guess I would be getting paid; in that manner, i guess it's more of an internship but that's not the point. The point is, OMG! I got my first mural job! So exciting! I haven't painted a mural in about 9 years. Wait, damn, NINE YEARS? Yikes! I can't believe how long it's been, that's crazy! Crazier still is the fact that an all-too-trusting co-worker of mine is actually allowing me to come into her house andpaint no less than TWO of her freshly painted sage-green walls, sight unseen, however I want after this 9 year hiatus! The only guideline I've been given so far is that it's to be a jungle scene for her new baby grandson's room, her first grandchild. No pressure.

The confidence she has in me that I'll do a good job is staggering. All she's seen from me is some random doodles, a couple of drawings on a dry erase board, some paintings here and there of turkeys in helmets (they have very sensitive skulls you know) and some birthday cards to co-workers that show up occassionally. But, when I ask her exactly what she wants me to paint she just says, "Do whatever you want, I trust you." What?!?! Whatever I want? You trust me? But I have no idea what I'm doing! Don't get me wrong, it feels amazing for her to have that type of blind faith in me but it's also incredibly nerve racking! What if I can't draw the animals big enough? Do I draw the outline on the wall in pen first? Or should I use pencil? What if all I can remember how to draw when I get there is a fart cloud? Do I paint the entire background first and then build up from there? Or should I add the background in after? Does the wall need to be primed? Sealed? What kind of materials should I bring? Do I need a ladder? A Respirator? A psychotherapist?!? OMG! I'm freaking out.

This is precisly why I'm doing this mural for free...or rather, as part of my "internship." If there's no price dangling over my head then there's less pressure for the painting to be perfect. And if there's less pressure for perfection then there's a better chance of reaching it. Right? Right.

Wait, what?