The Story of "Uplifting"

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A story of overcoming obstacles with perseverance and fortuitous circumstances

Written and illustrated by the artist of Uplifting, Krysta Bannis

The Graffiti Wall

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After I paid my bill for having my floors carpeted, I noticed someone throwing away beautiful samples of marble, glass, porcelain.... just exquisite stuff being placed in the dumpster outside.

"Why are you throwing that away?", I asked.

"It's discontinued."

I walked back in and asked the owners if they might like to show the public that they sell more than carpet. I suggested that the ugly graffiti wall facing the street might have a mosaic mural made of all the discontinued tile.

They were skeptical...not understanding how I could make an image from scraps.

So... I went home with a few of their supplies and came back with an example:

Seeing Possibilities

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Seeing Possibilities

Still available for sale! - though I've grown rather fond of it so I don't care if it doesn't. :-)

The crystalized glass was just gathered from a car wreck that happened in Ashland that week and I thought the broken glass was actually beautiful. Anyway, to continue...

"Impressive, but how do we know you can do a large scale work?"

From this....

How to begin....

Seeing Possibilities

"We have this blue awning that is in disrepair. We were going to order another fabric sign but it's outrageously priced."

I suggested we used leftover material from their jobs and protect it with a exterior sealant.

Thus, the "prejob to the job" to show my mettle.

To this....

How to begin....

As a publicly visible work, there were quite a few stipulations:

No religion

No advertising

No Offensiveness

No Affiliations

No No No...

It took a year of collecting tile while I thought of a design to inspire yet not offend in any way yet advertise what they had to offer without being an ad.