Deanna Flinn, from Wheatpasting to Murals

NOVEMBER 24TH, 2020

Deanna Flinn (she/her) is a portrait and editorial photographer who creates continuous line drawings that started as wheatpaste art and are moving into larger installations and murals.

Deanna is an artist with a keen eye for simplifying figures down to simple one-line drawings. For anyone who follows her on Instagram you can often find videos of her creating single line drawings and interpretations based on her own photography. We chatted about how she’s making space for herself as a muralist and she gives some great advice on how artists can do the same. (Spoiler: you have to go out and ask for opportunities).

Make sure you check out her most recent mural going up during the Lumiere Festival on November 21 for two weeks in the Jim Deva Plaza. The theme is 'contain yourself', be calm, be safe, and be yourself, with the piece painted on the side of a shipping container. She has also five panel mural for Gordon House being installed on January 4, 2021 where the artist will draw 60 portraits submitted by her online followers with one continuous line with her eyes closed with 1 continuous line from people in the West End, the community I have lived in for the past 5 years.

You can find her work on Instagram @freeadmission or on her website at www.freeadmission.ca

Stick*: What was it like doing your first mural? Can you walk us through the process? 

Deanna: I have wanted to be a part of the VMF since it started so I have been trying to reverse engineer experience creating a mural. 

At the beginning of lockdown in March, I took my backdrop paper and cut it up, made big sheets, and pinned it up on the wall that divides my kitchen from my living space. I used that backdrop paper to make BIG drawings, I figured out how to use different supplies to make different lines, to see which one worked best, which one felt best, and used a few of those drawings as wheat paste's too. They didn't stick as well as the others and a friend retrieved them and gave them back to me. So they are ready for more paste when the weather allows. I was trying to use this as a way to figure out how I could create a mural. I wanted to use the time to make something instead of just slowing down, I wanted to make art.

I finally got the nerve to ask my camera shop, Beau Photo if they would consider me painting a mural in their loading bay. They sell my hand-painted t-shirts and tote bags so I thought this might be a good fit. We had to get the idea past their landlords, they went for it so I made some mock-ups at home with my big craft paper. I let Beau choose from 4 different vintage cameras I had drawn with a continuous line from my collection and they choose the most popular, a Rolleicord. A twin-lens reflex camera used by the press back in the day. It's a sweet camera, with very interesting shapes. 

I got everything together. I needed to create the mural and set up a schedule with Beau, I planned to paint the base and the camera separately. The base was easy, I taped out an 8'x3.5' space in the loading bay and rolled it on with a microfiber mini roller. I waited a few days and went back with what I needed to create the continuous line design of the camera. I had my projector with me, ready to project the mini drawing I had used with my mock-ups at home. The sun was out, so we tried to create a shady spot for me but that just didn't work.

So, I freehanded it and sweated the whole time. It turned out great though and everyone was pleased with the result. Everyone was also super encouraging during the whole process. I went back later and added an anti-graffiti protection layer to it, it smudged the white lines a little, but it's safe from tagging.

S: Any advice to other people who want to do murals and maybe haven't been able to get into the mural festival? 

D: My advice to others who want to get into the mural festival, (that is my destination too), look for opportunities you can create to get your work out there. Start talking to people about what you want to do, that's what I did, and it created an informational interview that opened a huge door for me. You have to tell people what you want to do, don't be afraid to ask for what you want, you will definitely be surprised by the results.

S: What was the first piece you ever shared in the streets (or public for non-street artists) and what made you do it? 
D: I did start with wheatpaste posters in the streets, I made photocopies at the library of about 45 different images and figured out how to make wheat paste. The first spot I did it was in the lane behind Robson Street just after the BIA had a bunch of local artists paint doorways. I wanted to be a part of that group so I found spots adjacent to those doors, I thought if I placed myself in proximity, I could get some eyes on my work. The first images I choose to use were some of the early drawings I created that I really liked.

Early in my process, I was drawing a lot. Filling up sketchbooks I bought over and over again at the dollar store. The paper had a nice tooth to it and I really liked the feeling of the fine point I was using to draw on that paper. To date, I have created over 600 drawings with paper and pen. About a year ago I got an iPad and learned how to use Procreate, so I have lost track of how many drawings I have made to date. The cool thing about Procreate is it records your steps, you can make a video of each file you create, and it's great to use on social media to share your process.

I moved over to the mural routes off Main Street with my wheat paste's, with the same mindset, I'll make myself adjacent in hopes of getting some eyes on my work. A bit of guerilla marketing, I learned it from an artist I follow, Keri Smith. She wrote a whole book about how to be a guerilla artist and I took inspiration from her ideas.

S: Some people see street art as vandalism. Does art need to ask for permission?

D: I don't think artists need to ask for permission, I found out the rules, what was acceptable before I started to paste and stayed within those lines. It's a grey area, definitely but I also definitely think that you don't need to ask for permission. We don't need to deface property either, there are lots of spots around that you can use to add your art too, the entire city is practically under construction, you just need to figure out a way to add your work without defacing anything. I have put up posters and have had them torn down right away, it just happens. Another time I was caught on tape and they emailed me the footage, I didn't realize we were on private property because it wasn't marked. So, it's not without its obstacles, you just have to go with the flow. 

We need art even more than ever before and if it's something that you can do that brings you joy, share it, share it with everyone because we all need a lot more joy. 

S: If you had all the resources in the world, what kind of installation, or project would you do?

D: My dream exhibition would be to have a series of portraits made REALLY BIG like 9'x6' and beside them I would have their drawings. I have always wanted to have a solo portrait show and make the portraits really big. I lived in Toronto for 5 years and the galleries there inspired me to have this dream. I would marry the portraits with their drawings, just use a few simple lines to show the features of the face. I would put the drawings on a black background with a white line, my signature.

Creating murals with my continuous line drawings of faces feels like a guerilla way of having a show like this, next stop, a gallery.

This Article was provided by stick*