Hello, Stanley!

In August, I was appointed to head up an art project for Playground by the Sound--a completely volunteer effort to build a world-class playground in the community. I had been asked to do a number of art projects for the playground all ready, so I readily agreed. Whew, I did not know what I was getting myself into. It took nearly two months to complete and countless hours of fielding mind-numbing questions from curious kiddos. My favorite? "Is that a squid?"

No, Stanley is not a squid he's an octopus.

Here is the space I had to work with:


Front Side

Back Side


I decided to put in a mural on the backside using some of the 3-D pieces I had painted from the original build. The critters were all pre-cut for me, but I wanted to cut out a rock shelf and some seaweed to balance out the backside with the tenticles.

Here are some of Stanley's friends:

I had a lot of fun doing these pieces. There is also a shell, a sunstar and some fish that got included in the final mural. I had some difficulty getting these screwed into the composite wood. There were special star screws I had to use and the screw length was pre-determined. The screws kept going through to the other side. Very frustrating! I finally got it all worked out and could get going with the placement of the pieces.

Here is the prepwork for the background:

I chiseled the contour lines and eyes by hand and used a drill to prep for the 3-D suckers.

Painting the background was super easy. Little did I know, the rest of the project would be so time intensive.















Stanley's eyes really looked creepy
when I first did them.

The backside started to take shape really quickly.




Once the background was completed,
I worked on putting up the little critters.

More little critters.





The background on Stanley started going in
and the white for his 3-D suckers.

Stanley finally got his undercoat,
and Eli came out to check it out.

Luckily, I didn't have to do this by myself.

Helena Jole came out to help me often and did some great work on a hermit crab for me.



There wasn't any lengths I wouldn't go to
in order to finish this project!

This is Hermie. I painted the shell,
 and Helena did the body for me.



My friend, Linda Lockner, painted
this beautiful jellyfish for me.



I really hated what happened to poor Stanley's head. I loved the eyes, but his head looked like it was made out of rock. Totally redid that and added some deep texture.

The backside was complete by this time,
except for Stanley's tenticles.

Stanley took the longest to complete. There were SO many suckers.

The biggest question I got from kids was,
"Why are you doing that?" and "Can I help?"

Here is the finished backside.



Here is Stanley's Grotto completed.

 

I felt blessed by this amazing opportunity to work on this project. The childrens' reactions were priceless and the parents confirming. I'm so grateful for my helpers and thankful that I can now dedicate this project to my family and all the kids who play at the Playground by the Sound.