bananas for banana leaves
Murals
Peeling back the layers …
It started with a Facebook post from a cousin who, like me, had lived in Brazil. He had posted a short video of Lenny Kravitz’s farm in the state of Rio de Janeiro featuring larger-than-life indoor murals of banana leaves by an artist in LA. They were stunning and alive, almost seeming to bend in the wind and filter the sunlight. They transformed rooms by bringing the lushness of the tropics indoors. It inspired me to do my own murals.
Wraparound mural at Estepona Therapy in Estepona, Spain. Biggest one yet at about 50’ x 8.5’ plus soffits. Client liked the colors from my mural in Minnesota so we approximated those, plus accents. Hot work — no AC! Music by Nick Panek.
Time-lapse of banana leaf mural in snowy Minnesota. L-shaped room with two colors plus accents. About 30 hours' work. Music: "A Drifting Up" by Jon Hopkins. Assistant: Tomo, the cat.
Time-lapse of mural at Park Fifth Tower in downtown LA.
how it works
Los Angeles is full of banana trees. I started taking photos of them around town, and soon found that some are more photogenic than others. Even the photogenic ones don’t necessarily lend themselves to wall designs. My approach was to choose a photograph, manipulate it in the computer, then transfer the image to a full-size wall through a combination of freehand drawing and painting.
Here’s how the green-on-pink mural started out — a wall of banana leaves in the Mar Vista neighborhood of West LA.
And here it is with a little digital pruning.
one-of-a-kind designs
Each design is unique and based on an original photo of banana leaves. Finding the right leaves can be as time-consuming as designing and painting the mural itself. Murals can be indoors or out, one color (silhouette) or two. They look great on big walls of all dimensions, but they also work in more intimate spaces.
Another “before” and “after” with digital pruning.
The finished product filling a 14-ft wall.
For the three-tone mural at Park Fifth Tower in DTLA (above), check out the source photo (below) of a photogenic banana leaf stand at one of the most beautiful houses on Silver Lake Reservoir.
interested?
Contact me for an estimate: zasque@icloud.com or 323.810.6323.