LESLIE COBER, ARTIST : A LOVING TOUCH

Written by Lon Levin

50’ X 30’ Mural Circle Hotel, Fairfield CT Mixed media, acrylic outdoor paint, spray paint, large posca pens, brush When did you first think about art as something you wanted to be involved with? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors?

Article by Leslie Cober

My favorite part of being a professional artist, is that you never know what the next day will bring or where exactly your creative path will take you, or who will call you the next day with some kind of creative endeavor, or what that endeavor might entail.

I’ve created illustrations for an assortment of companies for decades. In addition to the traditional illustration assignment, often my favorite assignments come from “out of the box” opportunities….creating visuals and room design for private events, creating posters for important unity, climate, and world issues, designing and building elaborate parade floats, illustrating and designing a series of French soap, repurposing designer boxes and vintage album covers for solo and group exhibit, and most currently a favorite…outdoor murals.

In January I received an email, asking if I would be interested in working on a large outside wall, visible to the community, approximately 50’ x 30.’ There were no theme perimeters. I immediately said YES. I have rarely ever turned down interesting new creative endeavors. My mindset is to never say no if the project is interesting and creatively challenging. I quickly put the assignment on my agenda and requested a start date the first week of May. Warm weather arriving and mass confinement more in control.

I took a drive to check out the wall. As I stood before it, the large wall looked daunting. I wondered how I could safely achieve painting a wall of this height. The hotel informed me that they would provide a scissor lift, …. not a wonderful thought when one has a history of acrophobia (fear of heights) and the land in front of the mural all uneven, with a wall that dropped off at the end of the lawn.

Given the state of our country and world suffering from Covid19 and social distancing taking place from March, my goal was to create a mural with a happy, optimistic theme. I started sketches, starting with a woman’s profile, but quickly began to sketch a heart. I believed diversity was a necessity on the mural and painting a happy heart would incorporate those elements. The heart was the initial element of the drawing. Flowers grew from the heart to represent happiness. Smaller hearts, birds, butterflies, flying hearts, and thoughtful, kindhearted words such as, love, peace, harmony, and happiness completed the mural. The original sketch was created on velum with micron pen, then transferred to iPad, where I experimented with color. I then presented the sketch idea to the client for approval.

I pinned down a company to assist me with the painting at the highest points, but a week before the start, they canceled as their family member contracted Covid19. Fearful of how I would approach this…. I moved forward regardless.

I recruited my designer son Alex Gentry and family friend Colin Mackay to be my creative assistants. We trained to use the sturdy cherry picker. I quickly overcame my fear of heights. The most difficult part of creating a large mural, is that close up it is very difficult to see the art as a big picture. The grid guided us, as it directed in attaining the line work close to the original line sketch idea.

I gridded out the sketch in proportion to the wall, graphing it into 2’ x 2’ squares. We then measured the wall into horizontal sections, first with a sharpie and then applying painters’ tape at the sharpie line. The brick w all was difficult to paint, but it was easier to measure since the brick lines were easier to follow. The vent at the top center of the wall, was used as the center location to drop the line down the middle. It was particularly important to design the heart correctly. The entire painting would emerge from the heart… the proportions and face of the heart had to be accurate, particularly its eyes, which would make or break the entire painting. We measured the heart out and taped the points. With painters tape we marked every turn, measurement, and placement of the eye sockets, nose, and lips. Referring back to my sketch, I freehanded with sharpie everything else on the wall.

That evening I went to my studio space at SPAG Norwalk CT, creating several hand cut stencils. The most important were the stencil circles for the eyes, 10 inches in diameter. Stencil circles for the irises were created as well. I cut several leaf, flower, heart, and music note stencils to use the following day.

The center heart was painted with a roller with Benjamin Moore outdoor Aura paint, in a pinkish red. The eye sockets were left white, the color of the background of the mural, and the eyes were stenciled with spray paint. The eye sockets were then outlined in black posca pen. The nose and lips were then measured from the original grid and painted in black posca pen. The lips were then hand painted with Benjamin Moore paint in a lighter pink color. Completed with an outline smile in black posca pen

The remainder of the mural is a mix of spray paint both freehand spraying and stencil. Hand painted, brush areas include the butterfly, bird, and the smiling lip flowers along the bottom. Most of the mural is hand outlined in black posca pen.

The hand lettering is initially drawn in posca pen, and then thickly defined with a 1” brush in black acrylic paint.

With the help of my two creative assistants, the mural painting took a week to complete. Flower finishing touches at the bottom were completed on the last day.

Creating a mural with a positive message has been an excellent and rewarding experience. The public has embraced the art with warmth and enthusiasm. A just-in-time needed message with spring and summer months arriving.