The Blue Ridge Parkway Mural

This mural was very special to me because it was for my Grandfather and in honor of my Grandmother. My grandparents, who I love dearly and often reference their life/ relationship for how to model my own, rode motorcycles for 30 years together. I remember as a child thinking I was the coolest kid in school when my Grandmother picked me up on her bike. They traveled the whole country on the bikes but being from Virginia a ride that they did often and enjoyed thoroughly was riding bikes on the Virginia and North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway. The parkway has it’s its place in my heart as well, being from a small town with not much to do a common high school activity was to ride on the parkway with friends. 

My grandmother passed last year and my Grandfather decided recently to move into an assisted living apartment. We had the thought of what better way to make a new place feel more like home than capturing a special memory on a 9X14 foot space. What I love about murals is that they transform the space and you are transported into the art and the memory. Even the bikes are the exact bikes my grandparents rode, making sure I referenced old pictures and my grandpa’s memories to make them perfect.

While I thought this mural was going to be about the mountains I ended up spending about 80% of my time painting hundreds of trees. In the end, my Grandfather and I both loved it and his new home was complete. While we all miss my grandmother dearly, a little piece of her memory lives on the walls.