Transforming Tulsa: A Journey from Sketch to Mural Masterpiece

Mural at OSU extension, Tulsa, Ok

I grew up in Tulsa, and murals around there, we few and not celebrated like they are today. But it's different now with murals all over Tulsa, especially in downtown,

This spring I was given the opportunity to come up with a mural for the Tulsa Master Gardeners at the OSU extension, and I couldn't have been more excited! I wanted the mural to celebrate the founding of the organization as well as have the state tree (Redbud) and state bird (scissortail flycatcher) and I wanted those three subjects to be the main "topic" of the mural. The rest came from whatever my mind wanted to create. I love that kind of freedom.

The first step was to create a sketch of what the design would look like and even though I love working digitally, my favorite way to think out a design is with paper and pencil and ink.

original sketch of the mural by Bri Chan

The design was approved with little alterations and the next step was to do a digital mockup of the design on picture of the door so that they could get a better visual of what the finished product would look like.

Digital mockup of the mural

It was fun and smooth sailing...until I threw my projector up on the door only to realize that the black on the door absorbed ALL the light from my projector. I couldn't see anything, and I spent hours debating on what to do.

Luckily for me, my partner, Terry (who is amazing and repaired, prepped and repainted the doors), came up with the idea of creating cutouts to use. And, like Bansky, that's exactly what I did!

cutouts for the mural

Once the words and the bird was in place, I freehanded the rest of the mural and then the real fun began!

It took a week of painting in between all the rain we got to finish the process but it was worth it and is now on full display for the Master Gardeners to show case to Tulsa!

I hope you get a chance to see it in person. If you do, know that a lot of time creativity and a love for art and nature went into it to make an idea turn into a tangible reality.

Finished mural