During quarantine, Whitesville resident Robin Beatty has used her newly found free time at home to paint a 100-foot mural. The nature scene filled with flowers, birds, bees and butterflies stretches across a large fence in her backyard and only took her a week-and-a-half to complete.
The mural — inspired by Beatty and her mother’s love for peonies — completely covers her once-brown fence, and has now become a symbol of happiness and hope for others, she said.
“I could tell it made people smile, it made them happy,” she said, adding that people have begun driving by her house to try and catch a glimpse of it from the road.
Beatty, who owns Creatively Yours art studio, said she is a crafty person by nature. She loves to capture “spirit animals” in her artwork and often paints pictures of various animals — cows, dogs, even monkeys — for people by request.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic started making headlines and Beatty was spending more time at home, she suddenly felt herself very uninspired to create.
“I had no motivation, no desire whatsoever,” she said. “I had customers to paint for, and I couldn’t get started on the projects. When it was pretty outside, I’d do anything but paint.”
It was a strange feeling for Beatty, she admitted, and she felt out of her element. One day, though, she walked outside, took a look at the newly installed fence around the yard — built to keep her new puppies contained — and her creative juices started flowing.
Despite feeling unmotivated in the beginning, she overcame that quickly after getting the process started.
“When you’re creating something, your mind just goes and goes,” she said.
While many people have become fearful of the pandemic and the uncertainty of the economy and future, Beatty said she hasn’t succumbed to that fear. She hopes her art can inspire others to leave that fear behind and focus on the good things.
“Everything is beautiful in its own way, depending on what angle you’re coming from,” she said.
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