This is one of the best commissions I ever had. i love painting for grown ups, but…for children?! The very best jobs I’ve had–have been commissions for children. It is a time for me to play, to create things that children would point to & laugh at.
Dr. Stephanie Steinmetz of Steinmetz Pediatric Dentistry & Dr. Carl Walker Orthodontics…feel the same way about the children that come into their practice. Dr. Stephanie has had artists create murals, chairs, signs, paintings for the children that come to see her. One of the rooms for children to play in has a fish mural from floor to ceiling. Against one wall is a GIANT fish tank. Dr. Steinmetz wanted to have a fresh, new idea for the fish tank. We came up with Fish Town.
Steinmetz Pediatric Dentistry & Dr. Carl Walker Orthodontics are located in Birmingham, Alabama.
Alabamians are HUGE fans of our college football teams…if you live in Alabama, you have to be an Alabama or an Auburn fan. The children that have come to my studio, for art classes, are our critics, I’ve been showing them the fish every week…the kids LOVE the ‘Fishball players’ the most.
The fish are almost complete, i have to paint both sides of the fish, because they will be suspended with wire, in the empty tank. The tank can be seen by two sides. One side faces the waiting room, the other side, is in the room with the fish mural. The fish mural room is illuminated with a black light. The fish on her walls are painted with glow-in-the-dark paint & paint made for a black light. The side of the fish above, are painted for the daytime. I will paint the other side with the black light paint. FishTown will have buildings, a school of Dentistry (the fish with the glasses is a professor), fish with braces, familiar Birmingham sites (the shark is a monument, his story will come later)
perhaps i should have an ‘Amy Saab Art Studio’ in there too? I’ll have to ask. :)
