This mural was the biggest art challenge Cass has taken on yet. The ceiling’s pitch, angle, and the curve made it extremely difficult to paint an image proportionally. There was a lot of reaching and neck bent looking up, tilting back with this project. Needless to say, Cass has an even greater admiration for the Sistine Chapel.

“Most people ask me what the most difficult thing about painting large scale or painting a mural is. My response is that when you paint on a canvas or something on ground level, it is easy to step back frequently and look at your progress. When you start working large, are up high, and so close to the wall, you cannot see how something is truly looking from below. Often you can’t add that much detail because you would never see it from so far below, and you may have to higher your contrast more than normal so the eye can differentiate parts of the picture from that level. A lot of times with this particular project, I felt blind painting it – not knowing how it looked from below until I could gather the courage to get back down. And let me tell you, I was not going to climb up and down that scaffolding any more than I had to.

There is a bit of an illusion when painting in this type of setting because the walls slant in. When you try and paint horizontal clouds, you have to paint them slightly tilted up so that they look correct from straight on.

This piece took about 4 days but could have been done in much less if not for the level of difficulty in location and in moving on the scaffolding. Though secure, the scaffolding naturally sways when you walk, so I had to not make sudden movements. Being short also presented its challenges, and I had to stand on a 2-foot bench on top of the scaffolding to reach the very top of the Dove’s head. I couldn’t reach it for detailed face work until we moved the scaffolding to another tier up.

The point of this story? We all have things outside our comfort zone. But with perseverance, faith, and encouragement from the ones you love, anything is possible. It is only in times of uncomfortability, stress, or adversity that we truly grow as people.”