I have been incredibly busy this summer, I can't even begin to explain, but I was hired to do a mural with at risk youth in Amado, a small town 40 miles south of Tucson, I took the job, which lead to another job, working at the Youth Center itself and a slew of other fun things. Here is a blurb on the mural I wrote recently for a local newspaper:

" Kids from Amado of all ages have been participating in a project that boosts confidence and builds team working skills while keeping them off the streets and is also a lot of fun! I, Leanne C. Miller, along with Compass behavioral Health care, worked with the community in Amado and Green Valley and the other surrounding areas to select some visuals that represented the spirit of the area and it's people. After many meetings and working with the kids at the youth center, I came up with a final drawing which consisted of Elephant Head rock and surrounding landscapes, the Longhorn grill, the Amado Territory, the youth center along with native flora and fauna. Bob and Amy at the De Anza RV park in Amado donated space for us to paint in, and the painting begun after I drew on the images onto the wood panels. The mural, when finished will span 32 feet, and will be 6ft tall! We should be done mid August, just in time for school! When it's done it will sit at the La Sombrilla next to Kristofer's restaurant in Amado, Az. The mural will also travel locally, an exciting aspect that most murals don't have, it will go to local festivals and fairs all over southern Arizona. Keep an eye out mid August for an opening party for the mural we hope to have.

    For more information on Leanne C. Miller, a Graduate student in Fine Art at U of A, see her work atwww.fanciemammal.blogspot.com , for commissions and murals, contact her at oilpaint27@gmail.com.  Also see compasshealthcare.org , befreepima.org , abass@compasshc.org."

Here are the finished original sketches!

 "Elephant Head Rock" over the Amado Territory and the "Long Horn Grill" : above

                                          The Youth Center and the YOUTH! of course!

And,...some fun pics!!

Indiana, her bother Choco and Johnny paintning away!!!

                                           Ok, a selfie.....and the kiddos, working away on 32 feet of mural!

We had a full house this day! Indiana, Johnny, Nettie from Sahaurita High school,  sistersTamika, Kalika and their little brother Mario!

Me, Indiana, Mario, back ground, Nettie(blue hair) Johnny and Kalika and Tamika waaay in the back, 32 feet away!

After a long day of hard work!

Funny face shots....

me n the kids, I'm one of the short ones....

Last nights Sketch tuesday and Cafe Royale flier for may 6th

Here is the flier for my art show at Cafe Royale May 6th. The pressure is on, I had only about 1 mo. to finish all new paintings. For those of you saying they have seen this painting, yes, this was finished in Oct 2009, but everything else is BRAND NEW!! I am nervous tho, I am confident in my paintings, but getting them finished in time in a way that satisfies me is what worries me, but It'll be workin away everyday till I hang them on the 2nd.
On to fun last night at 111Minna sketch Tuesdays! I met Jenny Bird, (http://www.jennybirdart.com/) an amazing female artist who was recently published in High Fructose periodical art book. She is super nice, and very talented. I also met many other great people, sold a piece or two, but Dan Stromberg (chilibeanpastebucket.blogspot.com) did even better! He sold everything he made, except he gave one to Last Gasp Creator and art critic Ron Turner. www.lastgasp.com. Here are some photos.

Muraling in the freezing cold, but hey, it's still muraling!

Oh yes, It was a cold one today, the coldest so far! At 5:30 when we were all done for the day, I thought I had some sort of frost bite on my toes, being they were frozen and I couldnt even feel them! I rode my bike home, thought I'd get my blood flowing in the process, but nooooo, My toes didn't thaw for like an HR!!!
Otherwise, I have had some excellent help lately, mostly from fellow artists! Therefore this means they know what they are doing and do it well! I have to give a shout out to Rafael, an old friend from SFAI, Alexa Frasier Herron, also a buddy from SFAI, and up and coming film maker, check out her film collective Scary Cow, Dan Stromberg http://chilibean.biz/, and Paul Jimenez from San Pancho Art Collective. These people are so hard core that they painted with me all day, even in the 40 degree weather! I love the feeling of community I am getting lately!
Speaking of community, San Pancho Art Collective had its first ever fundraiser! Not sure how much we raised but it was so much fun! I was raffle girl, I tried to speak on stage but my voice didn't carry like Socratese! Our MC for da night and SPAC member, Persia on stage was on fire! Her voice carried us thru the raffle with ease and clarity!!! We raffled off all kinds of goodies, like origional art from nining Muir, and a live painting made right there in front of everyone by Eli Lippert from Precite Eyes Murals!!! It was a hit BTW!!! Every one wanted that piece! It was crazy!! I recommend next time we do this event, YOU SHOULD GO!!! We even did it up with free BBQ!!
Anyhow, Its been busy busy round here!! Come check out da mural at gouph and eddy, ya gotta check it out thru a chain link fence but it's lookin good, only have 2 panels left to start on, out of nine! I'm so proud of all us SF artists makin it happen!! I lost my camera, hopefully I will be able to start posting photos again, Santa are you listening!!! Ha! OK thanks for reading, have a great couple days until I can post again!!!

Mural progress finally!!

Hi everybody,

We officially started on the mural yesterday, not just doing paperwork and buying supplies, but we got wood, carried it home, drew and cut the wood panels out for it. As I mentioned before We are applying wood cut outs to the wall where the mural space is. The Natural flora and fauna, being anywhere from 3 ft tall to ten feet long, are drawn and cut out, thanks to my good buddy Marko from Euro Construction and his trusty jigsaw. Today we are priming all of the cut outs and hopefully wednesday we will be painting them in color!!! We accept donations of house paint and such, lots of natural colors, greens, browns etc...If ya have any, please share! Well, I will post some photos soon of progress too!! Probably this weekend! YEAH!! We Will be installing the 19th-22nd, so If you can help, please do!!! Send an e-mail, leave a message!!