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Featured muralist: Naomi Haverland – Reelsville Community Center
The following is the first of an eight-part series on the artists who will be painting the seven murals throughout Putnam County as part of the Putnam County Mural Festival. Set for Sept. 7-21, the festival will culminate with a celebration in Greencastle on Saturday, Sept. 21.
First up is Florida-based artist Naomi Haverland.
Naomi Haverland’s lifelong passion for art has led her to become an expert of both large-scale murals and street painting, which she has been creating since 2004. Her unique style combines humor and hyper-realism to create stunning, lifelike images that capture the imagination of her audience. Her works have been commissioned by renowned companies such as Harley Davidson, 7eleven, Amazon, Microsoft, Coors and Skittles.
Although originally from Denver, Naomi has recently relocated to Florida, where she continues to create works of art. Naomi will be installing a mural at the Reelsville Community Center in just a few weeks.
Q: Why did you want to create a mural in Putnam County?
A: Part of what I love about painting murals is getting the opportunity to visit and engross myself in new communities. I love being a part of a project where I’m not only getting to create my art large scale, but I’m also getting to see the way it changes the community and brings them together. I have never been to Putnam County so I am excited to discover this new (to me) pocket of the country. Also, my son lives in Indiana so this gives me an excuse to visit him. He has always been my biggest cheerleader when it comes to me making art.
Q: What excites you about the specific location of your mural?
A: My mural is on a community center and faces a playground. I’m excited that it will get to be experienced by all ages of people. I hope the kids appreciate the playfulness of the design, but I also hope it will bring out the imaginative side in adults too.
Q: How do you hope people will engage with your art?
A: I hope people are drawn in by the colors and lighting. But then I hope they start to treat it like a storybook illustration, creating in their mind personalities and a narrative behind the characters. Most of all, I just hope it makes the community center feel like a magical place.
Q: How did you get into mural creation? How long have you been doing it?
A: I began doing murals in my early 20s — mostly just as a way to make extra money. I was mostly working in homes and offices at that point, doing decorative painting. Since then I’ve progressed into doing more large scale and outdoor work, which is more of a challenge but also much more exciting and rewarding for me. I’ve been doing murals for about 20 years now.
Q: What inspires your art?
A: I often don’t know where my inspiration comes from. It’s very unpredictable and only shows up on its own terms. I do know that I’ve been inspired and learned almost everything I know about art from other artists. Interacting with other artists is how I am challenged to think differently or explore new methods and lines of thought. I often bounce my ideas off other artists to get their feedback and that influences my outcomes a lot.
Other than that, if there’s one single thing that inspires most of my art, it is lighting. I can be enthusiastic about painting just about any subject matter as long as it is cast in an interesting lighting. I love the interplay of warm and cool lights on a subject and I think that can make anything beautiful.
Q: What’s your next project?
A: After this mural festival, I’ll be participating in Shine mural festival in St. Petersburg, Fla. I’ll be painting a mural all about plankton and microscopic sea life--except it won’t be microscopic. I’ll be painting it huge. Before I started researching plankton, I was unaware of what a beautiful mysterious world the microscopic realm was! It contains so many beautiful colors, textures and shapes. I’m so excited to show the world how amazing plankton is.