Football mural - painting here is about 4ft x 8 ft
He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his handsand his head and his heart is an artist.
- St. Frances of Assisi
Photo- "Missing Grandma"
2-21-08
Art Selection Review Committee:
I have waited for the news in the waiting room. I have rejoiced. I have cried. I have been down the road of sorrow. I have traveled the road to healing. I have said good-bye to my best friend, my role model, my mother. She was diagnosed with stage 4, inoperable, untreatable cancer. My family showed the greatest love and honor as we cared for her for 5 short months. During that time, and since then, I have used my creativity as a means of dealing with this loss. Many of my images evoke memories of our childhood, and many of my images have a Christian meaning. If I can help someone along the road, I am blessed.
It is my belief that artwork can help the journey to healing. The artist cannot know who he will reach with his work. The artist cannot know what his work may mean to those awaiting treatment, those who are being treated, cured, healed, renewed, and those who are suffering fear, loss or sorrow. The artist can only create, offering what they can to the journey. We can each walk through life without seeing, without looking at the details, the words, the colors, the pictures….or we can stop a while and look, listen, reflect and enjoy. I believe that through my paintings and photos, one can travel more easily through “life’s transformations” with grace. One can use art images to express their own thoughts, observations, and emotions through a visual language of color, texture, form and light. Pictures touch human behavior, physical needs, sociological dynamics….how we make ourselves comfortable and can be comforted.
If a patient, physician, family member or visitor can be given any rest, reprieve or enjoyment from my work, I will be richly blessed. I am honored at the gifts I have been given by our Father, the Great Physician, and I am repaid time and time again as I share this gift with others. My most enjoyable means of expression has been in the painting of murals, especially children’s murals. I enjoy having others watch in amazement and the smiles that are soon to follow as images appear on once void walls. My most recent mural is the entire "John Deere" farm, and the children watched, helped, and kept telling me what they would like. "We need a dog and a doghouse, and a barn, and a silo, and round bales, and a tractor, and black cows, and 'sheeps', and chickens, and a pail and a shovel, and trees, and a windmill.......". They loved everything I put into the work.
I have a BA in art education K-12 and have been teaching 7-12 art education at West Lyon Community School for 23 years. I have been painting for others in their homes for many years. I have painted the entire Lord's Prayer around a dining room, created a "brick wall" behind a stove, made sewer pipes look like marble columns for a school play, painted "vines" up massive columns around a bathtub, stenciled "The fruits of the spirit" around the entire kitchen in our church, painted butterflies and vines and verses in the nursery, "Jesus said, let the little children come unto me". I can really do just about anything. Just ask.
Thanks for viewing my sampling of work and for this opportunity to share my work with you. God’s richest blessings as you continue this journey towards the completion of your facility.
Carol Childress
West Lyon Secondary Art Instructor
1937 Elmwood Avenue
Alvord, IA 51230
605-212-4233
712-473-2453
chilfarm3@alliancecom.net
cchildress@west-lyon.k12.ia.us
http://artbycarolchil.blogspot.com/
Examples of Murals Completed
Mural- Lauren Grace's Room
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Mural - Coffee Kitchen-4 walls
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Production painting-Drama
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Mural - Gates
Mural - Sun
Mural - Learn
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Mural - 3 walls-Spongebob
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Mural - Boys' Farm
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Mural - Adison's Room
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Mural - Success
Mural-Art is Life
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Acrylic Paintings
"Beyond the Sunset"
"Dainty Pinks"
"Cycle of Life"
"Street in San Francisco"
"Toward the Light"
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Photography
Photo-"Frosty Morning"
Photo-"Remnants of Love"
Photo-"Wreath"
Photo-"For Everything There is a Season"
Photo-"Held"
Photo-"Final Christmas"
Photo-"Angelic"
Photo -"Walk With Me"
Photo-"Hand in Hand"
Photo-"At the Beach"
Photo-"The Boys"
Photo-"The Boys II"
Photo-"Family Ties"
Photo-"Grandmothers"
Photo-"Paying Tribute"
Photo-"Favorite"
Photo-"Love my Babies"
Photo-"Tulips 1"
Photo "Tulips 2"
Photo - "Tulips 3"
Photo-"Tulips 4"
Photo-"Mother and Child
Photo-"Time with Grandpa"
Photo-"Missing Mother
Photo-"Memories"
Photo-"Treasure"
Photo-"Beacon"
Photo-"Baby Blue"
Photo-"Klondike 1"
Photo- "Klondike 2"
Photo-"Klondike 3"
Photo- "Klondike 4"
Photo-"Klondike 5"
Photo-"Behind the Mask"
Photo-"Trees 1"
Photo-"Trees 2"
Photo-"Rubies"
Photo-"Mom's Garden 1"
Photo-"Mom's Garden 2"
Photo-"Mom's Garden 3"
Photo-"Night Fire"
Photo-"Old Pump"
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Ink Drawing-with song lyrics, "Carry Me" by Marc Schultz
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Watercolor Samples-I could write and watercolor any word you would like-
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