Emily Herr creates custom hand-painted murals at home and on the road under the name HerrSuite.
She’s been painting professionally for ten years, specializing in careful context-based design with bright imagery. Self-employed since graduation from VCU, she has worked full-time as a muralist in clients’ homes, businesses, and public spaces.
The co-dependence between an image and everything around it fascinates Herr.
“Painting murals is an avenue for me to explore new settings for illustrative visual art. Illustration has always been my strongest draw in all visual arts.”
She plays with the interaction that may generally happen between words and pictures on a page on the much larger scale of walls, homes, and cities. Mural painting appeals to her as a challenging and curious setting for illustration.
Her studio space is built inside a step-van (like a food truck, but for mural work).
She does her design work at a desk inside, drives onto the mural site, and works from the vehicle like a contractor’s trailer.
“Every location for every mural I work on is different, and I enjoy getting to know the layout, the decoration, the view, the inhabitants of each new place.”
The setting is everything to her work, and having a mobile space for the process is vital.
The work shown at the A2AC Gallery is one of several murals she painted for a yoga studio in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, DC.
The owners requested three Hindu gods – Ganesha, Shiva, and Hanuman, and a tree of life, all inspired by the style of Gustav Klimt. She researched Hindu iconography and Klimt’s style and technique to design each god’s mural.
“It’s especially surreal to experience the rhythms of cars and people and animals moving around me as I work there for a few days or weeks”
“- it gives a powerful sense of place, one that I seek for my work to resonate with as I add it to the local visual environment.”
In September, Herr will begin her largest commissioned public mural in her hometown of Richmond, VA.
The 4000 sq ft wall in a fast-developing neighborhood is a monument to the ever-shifting coral reef of DIY efforts, makers, music, projects, etc.
They shape the culture of our community, frequently despite the powers that be who benefit from it.
- For more information on Emily Herr and her work, visit her Website, Facebook and Instagram!
- Also, visit our Beyond the Pail Page to learn more about the Beyond the Pail exhibition and its artists!
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