On August 11 and 12, San Diego based artist Carly Ealey painted her mural titled On the Rise but Still Adrift on the Carlsbad Art Wall located on the east facing wall of Señor Grubby’s in the Carlsbad Village.
Ealey arrived in Carlsbad Saturday morning and found the black wall among a scorching heat wave within a Village animated with the summer frenzy. Equipped with no more than a collection of spraycans, a speaker, a straw hat and phone laden with songs and reference, Ealey dove straight into her mural.
A series of sprayed dots quickly mapped out Ealey’s design, though to the random passerby, it looked like the nonsense of a desert sky to a vacationing city dweller. To Ealey, it represented a journey. A trip with ups and downs and an adventure without a clear destination—for a passionate artist, it’s a common path.
Lush lips, hollow eyes and an assertive chin quickly came to shape as the scorching sun pelted the artist’s straw hat. Ealey’s speakers blasted everything from new wave rock to the music of Mexico while Carlsbad locals and visitors photographed.
Ealey transitioned to the flowing hair providing the first glimpse into the character’s story. Long waving strands of hair floated behind her as if they were adrift underwater, in the current of the sea following an upward stare.
The expressionless character shouted a thousand words through her hollow eyes which were now illuminated by an exterior light. A promising future seemed to be only a breath away as the first day came to a close.
Day 2 began at the same time, same location and for Ealey, in front of the same character. Ealey finished the perfect rendering of the beautiful face, added long eyelashes and brought dimension to the weightless hair with values from both sides of the spectrum.
A crowd gathered praising Ealey for her ability to render a character with nothing but spraycans. Some asked who the character was and others asked if she was floating. Although the questions varied, all agreed that this mural was becoming an all-time favorite. Ealey’s confidence was on the rise.
A flurry of sprays dotted the entire background providing yet another clue of the character’s story. Dots of varying size and brightness mimicked meandering bubbles deep under a dark sea highlighted by a full moon overhead.
With the awe of a bio-luminescent tide, Ealey whipped up a trio of jellyfish confirming half of the crowd’s predictions that she was underwater while the remaining abandoned their space odyssey hopes.
The life of an artist is much like a jellyfish. It dances in the currents of the sea, determined to stay afloat, but uncertain of its destination. It’s an heartache through the dark abyss and a triumph along the sun-warmed surface. Though the emotional climate of this lifestyle is everchanging, a passionate artist can always anticipate one constant—being adrift.
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Click HERE for photos of past CAW murals
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Started in March 2015, Carlsbad Village based artist Bryan Snyder will be bringing a street artists/muralist every 2 months to paint a mural on the east facing wall of Señor Grubby’s in the Carlsbad Village.
Click HERE for photos of Snyder’s street art workshop: March 22
The goal of the Carlsbad Art Wall is to serve as a conduit between aspiring artists and professional artists, to provide a platform to engage and educate the Carlsbad community in the creative act of large scale public painting and to introduce a variety of new art and creative processes to the Carlsbad community.
Directions to the Carlsbad Art Wall located at Señor Grubby’s
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