By Kira Golden
Last Friday marked the unveiling of a mural that was donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Palm Springs by Keith Blum, who also goes by the moniker “The Mural Man.” Blum donated all the supplies, as well as his time and talent to create an organic piece of 3D illusion art on the wall of the Teen Center. If that weren’t generous enough, he also gave away instructional DVDs on how to paint 3D illusions to all the teens present at the event.
The mural is entitled “Mind, Body, and Soul” and encompasses all the core values that the Boys & Girls Club holds dear. “It started with the fish tank,” Blum explained. “They liked the fish tank I’d painted in the past and the director said ‘It’s so calming and relaxing when you look at a fish tank.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it really soothes the soul. We should do something for the mind and the body also.’ And we thought, let’s do shelves with things that teens would have on it, sporting things, and stuff like that. It just kind of evolved. It started off as just decoration, but then it turned into a message.”
Blum has spent the last two weeks creating this work of art, and though he has donated a handful of murals locally and in the L.A. area before, this is the first to be filmed for Blum’s reality TV show pilot, which will be called The Mural Man. “It would follow me from one venue to another, mostly of a philanthropic nature, donating murals like this one,” said Blum. “It started like this: across the country, art programs in school have been eliminated, and it makes me really sad because there’s untapped talent out there, and kids just need to be inspired. That’s why I’m giving away these DVDs that I made, and these murals, and as I’m doing it, we’re filming it. And we’re hoping that a network will pick it up and then we can go all over the country doing it. That’s my real goal: all over the country, donating murals on the television show, giving away DVDs, inspiring creativity.” Blum also noted that in Europe, art is mandatory in schools and it is a large part of the culture. Here, it’s only an elective, and with programs being cut, art is becoming less and less a part of our culture. He wants to do his part to turn that around. Given the excitement of the teens who watched the process of the mural’s creation, itching to pick up a brush themselves, it appears that in this case at least, Blum’s art has had the desired effect—The Boys & Girls Club of Palm Springs is indeed inspired.
In addition to the murals he’s donated, Blum also has many commissioned works in private homes and businesses all over Southern California and even in Las Vegas. His artistic style takes a limited one-dimensional space and creates the illusion of panoramic three-dimensional vistas. For more examples of his work and information about Keith Blum, visit his website at www.keithblum.com.
