By: Khalailah Bynoe
The artist behind the colorful murals that have brightened up Brooklyn College’s (BC) cafeteria is Lauren Liz. She has come all the way from Iowa to share her artistry in New York City. Liz has been working on murals for the last five years. Her talent doesn’t just stop in murals but also in abstract paintings. Liz had been hired by the cafeteria’s new management to bring color to the space.
“I tend to work with brighter colors, and my color palettes are something that are really unique to my work. I spend a lot of time intentionally choosing colors that will work well together. But, also for this project, [I] was working with some of the branding colors for Brooklyn College,” Liz told The Vanguard.
“Creating the sense of place for the cafeteria obviously [involved] all of the different food offerings that the business had. We wanted those to be represented and for it to look appetizing and to just get people excited about eating lunch.”
She uses Pinterest to collect different fonts and images of work that she incorporates into her projects. Her murals are first designed digitally, then she uses a projector to get the design on the wall, and then from there, everything is done by freehand.
A time-lapse on BC’s TikTok gives us a glimpse into the painting process. Liz painted 11 murals within the span of 10 days!
“Originally, I think the scope was eight or nine murals, but we ended up adding two additional walls. It kind of sped up the process, so I was working some pretty long days, like 12-hour days for most of the week that I was there.”
Time was one of the challenges she faced, but as an artist, coming up with designs was another. “Having enough creative energy to come up with different designs for each wall, I would say that pushed me a little bit to do things that I wouldn’t normally try.”
Liz continued, “And there’s also these pieces of trim that kind of stick out and protrude on the wall […] so it was like trying to figure out ways to creatively use the existing structure of the wall with the trim pieces, such that it could be an asset to the design instead of taking away from the design.”
When asked to share some words of advice for young artists, Liz shared the following sentiments.
“Advice that I love to give is to just make as much as you can and not worry too much about what people are going to think about it […] the more things that you can finish and then move on from, so that you can work on more and more projects. You’ll be able to look back in the future and see how your work has evolved.”
Third spaces are important, and the murals have made BC’s cafeteria an inviting place for students to gather with their peers.
“I interacted with a lot of people who were passing by as I was working on the project, and they were just excited to see something happening. I think it could be a good lesson moving forward for BC in their other buildings that if they have the opportunity to put funding towards custom artwork in the space, I think it will always have a positive impact.”
For more information regarding Lauren’s work, please visit her website www.letterwithlaurenliz.com.