Making Connections - The Albany Makeover

Making connections has been the most valuable tool for me when it comes to my murals. People often ask me how I get most of my work and the truth is… it’s through Instagram! As much as people may poo poo all over social media and say what a hideous place it is, I have had nothing but positive interactions on it.

Yes I may be addicted to it, and yes I definitely spend too much time on it mindlessly scrolling through, but if I hadn’t then maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now.

I have made so many amazing connections through Instagram by chatting to people in messages or from comments on pictures. I’ve built up the loveliest and most supportive community and the best thing is meeting people in real life when I go to their homes to paint their walls.

So the moral of the story is…. spend all the hours of your life on social media. Jokes!!! Do spend time on it but do it for the reasons of making friends and being inspired, not for being mean on it and following stupid people who try and sell you botox and weight loss shakes.

Anyway, I digress! I was talking about making connections. My boyfriend’s Mum sent me a link to apply for Lewisham Music’s call out to find someone to paint a mural in their new building. It also said that it should be from someone in the local area. I definitely do not live in the local area! I live in North London and Lewisham is very South London. So I thought about not applying on that basis. I then thought, screw it!!! If you don’t try, you don’t get anywhere.

I got on my laptop, started drawing up a portfolio of all my work and how I could help them make their new premises a happy and colourful place for all to enjoy, and also put in my own personal story of how I went to music school when I was a child and how it had shaped me.

To cut a long story short… girl got the job!!

I was able to help them transform their building and make it a welcoming environment for kids to come and learn. Everyone was so lovely and I had such a positive experience with them.

Many months later one of the chairs of Lewisham council saw my work at Lewisham Music and mentioned it to The Albany who had received a grant to do up the cafe area as part of the Lewisham Borough of Culture. They got in contact and asked me to pitch an idea to them. I came to see the space and offered my insights and ideas for the place, went away and drew up a pitch for them.

I drafted up ideas of what they could do with the space and how it would look by digitally super imposing my collages into their space by using an app called Procreate on my iPad where I draw up ideas for designs.

A few days later they got in contact saying I had won! Yaaaay!! What a big relief to know I had some work right at the beginning of the year to start off 2022 with a bang!

I then settled on one idea for the space where I would be painting the whole of the back wall and a chipboard wall they had put up due to Covid.

So on the 10th of January 2022 I went in to start painting and seeing how I could turn a sketch into a real life mural.

The problem with seeing things as a picture is you think it’s actually a very small wall because it exists as a 10cm image… then when you get to the space again you realise that 10cm is really not the size of it! It’s actually about 30 metres of wall that needs to be painted in 4 days! Oh my Lordy I was panicking on that Monday wondering whether I had bitten off more than I could chew.

I powered through. Painting as much as I could to give myself a head start and an idea of how much I could achieve if I really put my mind to it. After priming the chipboard wall and 7 hours of painting the brick back wall I realised that yes, I could definitely get this done! I could do this!!!!

The second day of painting I eased up a little on the intensity and need for speed, otherwise I would exhaust myself, and things were looking really good!

The third day… my Dad got covid. Now, I live with my parents so it was highly likely that I would end up getting it too. This gave me a massive kick up the bum to go in and finish the mural just incase I wasn’t able to come back in for another week. I painted and painted and painted my little fingers to the bone, until I had painted to a good level that wouldn't look terrible if I did have to postpone my painting due to getting ill.

Luckily, I tested negative the next day too! I was able to go in and add the finishing touches, extra coats of paint and add some shapes around the rest of the room to tie the place together.

This has been one of the best murals I’ve done so far. Each mural is a learning curve and each mural comes with its own challenges, but I just love seeing the end result. I love seeing how people interact with the space and tell me that they didn’t know what this place was missing until they’d seen the transformation.

The Albany is a hub for so many different people from all walks of life. One person commented that she couldn’t wait to have her elderly group in so that they could come and appreciate the colours and happiness that the cafe now had. They were going to love it!

I think sometimes I’m so into it and intent on getting it finished that I never have a moment to appreciate all the work that’s gone in and how proud I should be of myself. But standing on the balcony to take a photo of the everything in its full glory, I was able to take a moment and just think, wow, I did all this in 4 days?! And it brought a little tear to my eye.

I listen to a lot of podcasts while I paint and a lot of motivational ones, funny ones and informative ones, but basically the message you get from all of them is to do what you love, appreciate everything you have and all you’ve achieved and stay present.

So I’m taking this time to reflect on this project and appreciate everything that has lead me to this moment. All the connections I’ve made who have taken me to new projects I would have never thought about or never dreamed of, the positives in life and the different paths that have taken me to this amazing place of creating murals that make people happy!

It truly is ridiculous that I get to do this for a living!!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout!