Big ideas are born from many a’ source. A surprising impetus to one of our biggest—and most creative—ideas to date? The onset of the global pandemic. Proving to be quite the catalyst of confronting challenge for a small business (read: ours) that focused its purpose and passion on people gathering to get creative (read: sharing paints and brushes at large-scale events - a big time COVID-19 no-no), the challenge of folks staying safe by socially distancing left us looking for creative partners interested in creating connection through creativity in a…well, creative way.

Creating large scale murals as team-building opportunities with corporate and community clients has been one of our favourite ways to bring people together to date. So when COMCAST reached out at the peak of the global pandemic seeking a way to create a meaningful mural for their community in Philadelphia that their team could paint, our big idea for how to keep these projects rolling got to take flight.

Here was the concept:

• COMCAST had a vision for how to support Black artists in the lead up to and celebration of Black History Month - more specifically, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• And, the mural would find its permanent home at the Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia, as a donation from COMCAST.
• The team had already selected the artist for their collaboration—Serena Saunders—who was an up and coming female Black artist from the local community. 
• The missing piece> how to get 100 COMCAST staff members to paint their piece of the project…all while socially distancing and working from home.

And so - the Mosaic Mural was born. 

We took Serena’s (stunning) custom piece, and chopped it into 100, 1 foot X 1 foot squares to create a 10 foot X 10 foot mural. Those squares were bundled into Paint-small-ios (complete with their custom paints) and sent to COMCAST to distribute to their team members to complete. We also sent a giant map for how to put it together when all the pieces were done being painted.

The finished product was installed piece by piece—with Serena Saunders leading the team—on location at The Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia, and acts as a proud mark of connection, of creativity, and of elevating the presence, voice and talent of Black artists, and the Black community. 

Plus, doing this big work with a small, women-owned business?

Those are all wins in our books. 

Curious about your own mosaic mural? Hit us up at info@paintillio.com and let’s get creating.