Painting the town: Artist’s talent on display
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – Shy Morris has long dreamed of a 24/7 art gallery with no admission price. It wouldn’t even have a front door.
After she was furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic from her job at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, she kept her brushes handy and put the opening strokes on her ambition.
“I’ve always wanted to paint murals all through New Smyrna and have something like a drive-thru art exhibition,” said Shy, which is short for Shyriaka. “Because I think art in public spaces is definitely therapeutic and it’s needed. Not everybody feels comfortable going into traditional gallery settings. If it’s out in public, people can view it.
“I think art in public spaces is definitely a plus, because you never know how it can brighten up a person’s day if they walk by and maybe see this 12-foot sunflower.”
Morris, a community artist (largely working with schools) at the Atlantic Center, started her post-furlough mural creations with sunflowers on an exterior wall of a private home.
“This lady is 81, and after we went into quarantine, I was talking to her,” Morris said. “Her window opened to a brick wall. She wanted something beautiful on her
brick wall. So, sunflowers. When it was done, I posted a picture of it on Facebook. It takes off, with everybody saying, ‘That’s nice, that’s nice.’ ”
Next came a mural on the east wall outside Nejma’s Boutique, where a TV crew from an Orlando station showed up for a news story on Morris’ new work.
“I did a sketch for Nejma’s, and they said, ‘You’re hired,’ ” she said. “I did the outline, posted that on Facebook and started to get a little bit of traction. Then (the TV crew) contacted me, and I posted a picture of the cameraman taking a picture of a sunflower. After that, it was just nuts.”
Morris, 44, a New Smyrna Beach native, has done six murals since mid-March and has several in the pipeline, though wet weather hindered her progress.
Depending on the size and scope of the work, Morris said, she’ll charge from the low $100s to maybe $1,000 or beyond.
On hold, awaiting dry weather, is a painted replica of the logo at diner Ruthy’s Kozy Kitchen.
“Logos are challenging because you have the original to judge it by,” she said.
Moving from a standard artist’s easel to a massive wall isn’t for everyone. There are certain challenges you don’t get inside a comfortable studio.
“When painting, you have to get it to scale,” Morris said. “But being up on a scaffold, you can’t really just step back and make sure all of your proportions are right. You have to get up and get down. Go back, look at it, crawl back up on the scaffold.”
She said it’s always worth the effort.
“It brings me joy just to see people walk by and see me up on the scaffold,” she said. “They just sit there and watch me for hours and hours and ask me questions. It’s very engaging. Most people have never seen a professional artist working on something. And this is a good time for people to get out and see new things and meet new people.”