Southern California Mural Artist

In the summer we take advantage of the local school fields and let our dogs off leash so that they can run. We usually cut through the local high school, Newport Harbor High, and often end up at a nearby junior high. We have been noticing two enormous and beautiful murals evolving on the side of one of the new buildings. They are giant and impressive and it is hard to feel the actual scale of things unless you are standing underneath them. Most of the time when we walk by and admire the progress of the murals the artist has been on a lift, very high in the air, and unavailable to talk. Yesterday, however, he was doing some work closer to the ground level and we got to chat with him. I was very curious as to whether he had always been an artist and if he had studied art in school or if he was a natural talent. He introduced himself as Tom Seibert and answered that he had gone to UC Riverside and was a biology major. He had taken art history as well but had not officially studied art. I thought it amazing that someone could take an idea and translate it into something so enormous onto the side of the building. We asked if he had always been talented at painting murals and he humbly answered "I don't know if I am." We are going to continue to walk by and visit this mural as it is getting finished. He believed there would be another two weeks worth of work on the project before it would be completed.

Other people have passed by to admire his work as well. Tom mentioned that on the weekend a wedding party had happened upon his mural and asked if they could take some portraits in front of his project. He had also had some young visitors stopping by every day on their way to swim lessons. These lucky youngsters actually got to help him out with a bit of painting on the ship mural. They will forever be able to proudly say they helped with this beautiful piece of history. Visit Tom's website to see some more of his beautiful works.

http://www.muralsforschools.com

Tom's story continues. Like I mentioned before, Tom is very humble and isn't one to speak about himself at all. A special friend of his sent me an e-mail and here it is:

Hi Dave & Nancy! I'm Chris, Tom's girlfriend, up on the Central Coast. He has told me about your visits & the pics. He sent me your blog this morning. I just wanted to thank you for these great pictures & writing such a nice piece on him. He is very talented and humble, you're right! We are so blessed that Tom is out there working right now, one year ago, he had a bone marrow transplant at the City of Hope. Thank God he is still here to 'colour our worlds'! Your appreciation is awesome! Thanks again! : )