WAREEMBA BOOGIE WOOGIE

Wareemba Boogie Woogie collaborators: Filipo and Mark

Earlier this year I received this commission request:

Dear Sonia, 

This is a bit of a strange email, but I thought it’s worth asking...
My lovely 80-something year old neighbour has a prominent wall facing a corner junction in our little suburb of Wareemba. His late wife was an artist, and he is open to weird and kooky ideas, so I think he would let me do a mural on it.

I see it as an opportunity to improve the street and to make people smile on their way to work or school. I see it like a bit of guerrilla suburban graffiti/ subversion/contribution...

Is this something you would be interested in?

My answer was a big fat yes.  

Mural paintings enliven and activate spaces for people, and it is Lymesmith’s vision to connect people and places, by creating site-specific artworks to beautify the built environment. Unlike my murals to date, this was a request for the design only, as the client and his family wanted to do the painting themselves – a true collaboration, and as a gift to their neighbour. 

My challenge was to design a mural that could be executed like a ‘paint by numbers’ kit. It helped that the client is also a very talented architect and had the skills required to scale up the design onto the wall.  

The resulting mural is called Wareemba Boogie Woogie. 

As part of the design process, I met with the recipient of the mural gift, Fillipo.  A retired sea captain with a huge archive of stories, he generously showed me around his home and in particular his archive of wonderful paintings by his late wife, artist Barbara Zerbini.  Filipo and Barbara met on board a ship, at a dance.

Colour and pattern inspiration found in Wareemba included - Bottlebrush, fine and spiky bursts of colour; Godwits - a special little bird that migrates vast distances; and the streets of early c.20th bungalows painted in classic heritage colours, with their pitched roofs zigzagging down wide streets planted with frangipani and magnolia trees.  Since this was a project about neighbours, it felt fitting to try to capture the geometry of the rooflines in the design.

Design for Wareemba Boogie Woogie

The result? 

Dear Sonia,

 The process has been great - we have enjoyed interacting with passers by and friends and neighbours - the whole thing is quite a big deal in our little local community as it doesn't happen that often :) The best feedback we had was from a local man going for a walk - he said 'I've just been walking down the street towards this mural and I've had a big smile across my face - it just makes me feel happy". 

Filippo says that at least now Wareemba will be known for something other than being the smallest suburb in Australia (it really actually is!) and that he is sure it has added at least $250K to the price of his house. 

Filippo has asked that if possible could you please join us for lunch one day when you're in Sydney and check it out for yourself, and he can tell us some more dodgy stories from his cruise ship captain days. 

Wareemba Boogie Woogie