Back To The Drawing Board: Rick Springfield

Me With The Rick Springfield Chalkboard Mural I Created One Year Ago

When we first installed the giant diy chalkboard in the living room, the plan was to create murals for every holiday or season.  That proved difficult at first because creating murals on a giant chalkboard proved difficult.  However, I slowly started to get the hang of it.

Then, a new difficulty began to arise.  The better I got at realizing my visions for these murals, the harder it was to erase them when the next season came along.  And it wasn't just difficult for me.  As you can see in the photo below, Hippie had some trouble adjusting to the impermanent nature of this medium as well:

Hippie Protesting The Inevitable Destruction Of My Beatles Chalkboard Mural

I was sad to see The Beatles Mural go too but I reminded myself that the purpose of creating the chalkboard was so I could have an ever changing display, so I did what I had to do.

Then, around this time last year I created a mural in honor of the birthday of my favorite songwriter, performer and muse, Rick Springfield (click here to read that story).  The plan was to enjoy that until Halloween and then replace it with something appropriate for that season but when the time came I found I just wasn't ready to part with Chalkboard Rick Springfield.  I decided I would put it off until the winter holidays.

And then December rolled around and I still wasn't ready.  So this happened:

My Rick Springfield Winter Holiday Chalkboard Mural

It was the perfect compromise.  I got to keep Chalkboard Rick Springfield in my life and still exercise my drawing skills.  So I did this again when Valentine's Day rolled around:

My Rick Springfield Valentine's Day Mural

Then, over the course of three days in March, I created my favorite chalkboard mural of all (while listening to Rick Springfield's music of course).  I called it "Flowers From Hurricanes", taken from a line in one of his songs:

Me and My "Flowers From Hurricanes" Rick Springfield Chalkboard Mural

I didn't even think of erasing this one until a couple days ago when I realized it has been almost a year since I created the original Rick Springfield Chalkboard Mural.  Then it occurred to me that one of the things I admire about Rick is that he is always moving forward and doing new things.  I knew it was time for a change.

So although it kind of broke my heart, I finally forced myself to erase Chalkboard Rick Springfield...

And replaced him with Guitar Playing Chalkboard Rick Springfield!

Me With My New Rick Springfield Chalkboard Mural

Another one of many qualities I admire about the actual Rick Springfield is his persistence.  There have been many times in my life I've wanted to give up but haven't because of the impact that the example of his life and work has had on me.  I decided to commemorate that in this mural by adding a quote from an interview he did for Rolling Stone Magazine a couple years ago.

"My big ace in the hole is I never give up." - Rick Springfield

Now all I have to do is look at this mural to remind myself that I have the fortitude to keep going back to the drawing board, both literally and figuratively.

Thank you so much for reading.  I'd love to read about who or what inspires you if you would like to share in the comments below.

Until next time, happy creating!

Peace, Love and Art,
Victoria

If you liked this post, you may want to check these out:

My Many Muses: Rick Springfield (2016)

Back To The Drawing Board

Back To The Drawing Board 2014

My Many Muses: Rick Springfield (2015)