Doing Her Paintings Justice

Maidens IV 2010

Doing Her Paintings Justice
Haysville artist known for her murals; does her work for God

Painting for Rachel is a means of glorifying God.
"You try to show in some way of the beautiful things he has created," she said.
"Everyone does what they do for some reason. I paint to serve God and glorify him."
And Justice, 25, does so in several ways. She is know for many seasonal window and mural paintings in shops and on walls in downtown Ashland. An up-close glance at the side of the American Legion of the full-length murals on the walls of Landoll's Mohican Castle restaurant in Loudonville reveals the detail the weeks long process requires.

Her latest project, a mural on the Ashland County Animal Shelter wall facing Claremont, is no different.
"You can make it look good form the road" she said from the top of the scaffolding set against the shelter wall. "But if people want to look up close there has to be more detail." Justice, a Hayesville resident, was hired by the County in June to design and paint the mural, meant to speak to residents who may need a four legged friend and go along with the mural project downtown said Barb Queer, county business administrator. "I had made trips downtown and noticed the pictures on the windows" she said "Rachel paints like most of us write our name." When she's hired to do any type of painting, Rachel first collaborates with the shop or home owner on a design. She was on her own for the shelter mural, but came up with a design on using pictures from animal magazines which she copied onto a sketch which includes a hunter, stooped to the ground with his dog, a puppy licking the face of a little girl and a boy drinking from a hose with his dog. "I chose pictures where a dog was engaging the viewer or someone inside the picture" she said, dabbing bright blue sky paint and scraping aware drips with her finger. "I tried to stay away from posed pictures. I had a whole stack but narrowed it down to six and tried to work with those."
Then, she visited the shelter at night and used a transparency and projector to project the sketch on the building. She copied the image using catch or china pencils depending of the weather. "Then you see where you want to make the changes and add shadings and different details," she said. When she started painting, June 30 she hand tinted latex paint and worked top to bottom, starting with the sky and ending with mans best friend. "Each mural makes its own statement," Justice said. "This mural talks about how wonderful dogs are and how we interact with them at every age."
Though Justice has always liked painting watercolors she didn't start with windows and murals until 16. There was always an emphasis on the arts in her family and many of her 8 siblings who are all home-schooled, paint, draw, or are involved in music. But Justice never went to Art school or took formal lessons at least in person. "I had a lot of lessons from a lot of people," she said. "But it was in the from of a book. They are very self-explanatory and you get the most practice doing it yourself."
Though people and animals are harder to paint, she enjoys them more than landscapes or other designs. "there is more emotion in people than in a sunset," she said. Most of her designs come from photos to which she's taken a liking. "Photos give a realistic picture of what things look like," she said. "They give the most information." That's why she makes an effort to make sure customers know exactly what they want when they hire her.
Collette Crumlick wanted Justice to paint a mural covering a big drainpipe in her family room with a countryside scene. "I knew I wanted to start with a tree and had a of wallpaper and a puzzle to start with," she said. "She had pictures of animals and I just picked things out from those." Teamwork is an integral part of Justice's job, she said. "If you ask her to do something, she figures out a way to do it and is not satisfied until she gets it right. If she could clone herself a couple of times, she would be busier than she would ever want to be." The process helps Justice with her shyness. "It's sometimes hard to sell yourself," she said. "The way to make a customer feel comfortable is to and you have to put on a confident air, too."
Angela Downing, her husband Rex and their children Jessica and Nicolas are enjoying their mural, on a "five year plan." "She's doing our playroom section by section," Angela Downing said. The mural includes trees, rocks, rabbits, a raccoon holding a marshmallow, and a portrait of Jessica on a swing. "It's gorgeous," she said. "Jessica loves it and always shows everybody. We scrapbook it. Rachel is just so insightful and I tell her she's underpaid for her creativity and talent."
Justice has done several personal murals including a bedroom resembling walking to an aquarium. She started painting the mural June 30 and hopes to be done within two weeks depending on the weather. She's done window painting at Town Pharmacy, Martin House Beauty Shop and Robertson's Bride -N-Party and helped with the downtown mural.
She doesn't yet know if she'll take her skills to the big city. "You just start where you've been placed and work from there." she said. "I just enjoy it," she said. "Once you get better you enjoy it more like how a picture comes out in the different stages of the project. It's neat to do faces because of the different personalities." "She had just wonderful insight," Queer said. "I was thinking some characterization of some puppies. She came up with the fact of dogs as pets and coworkers."

Ashland Times-Gazette Wednesday July 7 2004

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