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articles and Websites about Eva Cassidy mention that she was working for a friend in
Annapolis, painting murals, when she fell ill. This page is all about those murals and
that time in Annapolis.
Margaret
Haven of Haven
Studios contracted in the early 1990s to design
and create
murals for the school cafeterias in and around the
Annapolis area. These schools varied from elementary
to high school. The murals had to be completed during
the summer vacation. Sometimes as many as 3 to 5 cafeterias
were completed in a 10 week period.
These murals
were not intended to be detailed masterpieces, but big colourful images with a theme
that would appeal to the kids. While the designs were not in Evas personal style,
she had an important skill requirement: she could adapt and paint in whatever style a
design required, so the completed
rooms looked consistent as a whole.
Margaret designed and produced colour scale drawings of the
murals; the drawings were then drawn to scale on the walls and painted. Eva claimed to
have no talent for the measuring required to draw to scale, but had a wonderful talent for
rendering
and could work at a great pace.
She would transfer the design of a tiger
to the wall, trace it and render it in about 45 minutes. Her friend was amazed, expecting
one of these big cat heads to take anywhere up to two hours to complete, given the detail,
and the impression it had to give at a distance.
Since the work was being done during the summer break when
school was not in session, the air conditioning was off and they often had to endure the
high summer heat while meeting tight deadlines. So they borrowed huge floor fans from
wherever they could, put wet cold scarves around their necks and worked on. Eva preferred
to protect her hair in a scarf or sometimes wore a baseball cap back-to-front so she could
see what she was doing.
There were days when nothing seemed to go right for her, days
when she seemed moody. On these few days she had difficulty painting in the style
required. Her mind seemed to be in a different world. During her lunch break she might
walk to the farthest corner of the cafeteria and sit quietly eating her lunch in solitude.
Everybody knew to leave her alone then. Eventually in her own time she would join the
others.
Frequently something unexpected would happen to pull her out
of her mood. Once during an "off" day she gave a great "WAAHH!" , and
everyone turned to see Eva on a ladder, looking down at her can of red paint splattered
all over the floor sheet under her. After great shouts of laughter, her spirit lifted.
Eva identified with the children who
would use the cafeteria and see the murals. On a underwater
mural Eva had to paint an octopus.
At this point Eva was already undergoing medical tests
and found it difficult to work on ladders. So she did
a lot of detailed work at eye level. She had fun completing
this particular octopus (nobody could paint octopus
eyes quite like Eva. When you see them close up you
will notice that they have a very distinct expression
). When she was finished she laughed and said, "This
ones for the kids", adding that the adults
wouldn't even notice. When her colleagues took a closer
look at what Eva had painted, they saw the little air
bubbles drifting up not from the octopus mouth,
but from his bottom. In true Eva style she had given
the kids something secretly delightful, and a private
little joke to share.
When her illness limited her painting and she had to use
crutches, she still insisted on coming in. She spent her sit-down time teaching the other
painting assistant the subtler aspects of rendering, giving advice and encouragement. She
said she preferred the quiet focus on painting and talking when she felt like it, to
sitting at home.
It is great that Eva Cassidy
choose to make a career in music. But clearly, had she
chosen art, she would have had a future as a very gifted
visual artist.
School Murals
We have been asked to provide
more details about the school murals Eva worked on.
Margaret Haven has kindly provided these extracts from
her notes at the time.
School
murals by Haven Studios
Anne Arundel County
Arundel
M.S. 6/95
"Rainforest" theme
Bulkhead; entire back wall:9x50L; side walls; Cats over
cafeteria doors
(hired Eva-her first mural with me- detailed foliage
on back wall, blue/black birds and all cat heads)
Crofton
M.S. 1995
12/96: (Christmas break) "1950's Main St."
Theme
52' x 7.5'- Entire length of cafeteria wall from table
height up. Gas station, record shop, dress shop, soda
shop, theatre, hardware etc. all detailed, including
people.
(hired Eva and K
. Eva detailed soda shop architecture,
detailed inside soda shop and most of dress shop manikins.
K
. worked on signs)
Corkran
M.S. 7/95
"Caribbean" theme
2 walls, each 14L: one with trees, turtles, beach and
water etc, one with heron, trees, water etc.
9x14L back panel w/ pink flamingos etc
Entire front-Palm border
(hired Eva-detailed side wall with lizard,turtle etc.
+ painted background for other side wall)
Severn
River M.S. 8/95
"Underwater" theme
14 w x 5.5 high + refrig etc, around corner to inside
walls; Side walls large fish; shells above doors,
(hired Eva- detailed swordfish, octapus and 3d swimmer,
large fish on side walls, some fish and water on back
refrig) I could have large fish mixed up with another.
Two underwaters had large side fish. Eva painted first
ones.
Magothy
M.S. 8/95
underwater..similar to Severn but different
(hired Eva and G
. who blocked in color, Eva detailed
back wall and refrig w/octopus, some fish)
Andover
M.S. 12/95 (now called something else)
Global plane route
entire wall and side walls
Back panel
(hired Eva who detailed misc stuff.)
Annapolis
M.S. 6/96
Castle/Dragon theme.
19' wide x 8' hi dragon
Cafeteria: castle (42' x 8)covering windows/doors w/
soldiers on parapets, flags etc.
Kitchen: Bulkhead w/more castle w/flags, 2 side walls
4x8 w "Repunzil" etc
(hired Eva, (V
1-2 days) Eva detailed dragon head,
helped with stone wall)
McArthur
M.S. 7/96
Cafeteria: Spectators in stadium above, stadium fence
below on glass, signs on fence
42' wide x 8' high (began 9'and up)
(hired Eva- detailed some spectators and fence)
Chesapeake
M.S. 8/96
(2 kitchens)
"Underwater" theme
main wall: 15' X 5' +refrigs etc.
2 side walls: "St. Thomas Pointe Lighthouse"
and "Bay Bridge"
(hired Eva & G
Eva detailed part of
main wall, G
. drew to scale and blocked in some
base colors) This was the last mural Eva worked on.
She was already quite ill.
Van
Bokkelin Elementary 8/96
"Underwater" theme
14-16' Dolphin on Cafeteria wall
Kitchen: entire back and side walls underwater
Fish border around kitchen area
(first mural without Eva-who was then too sick to work
any longer hired G
.. who helped block in color
and painted fish border. We listened to "Live at
Pearls" (an
unreleased Eva concert ed.)
we sent her prayers and reminisced and cried through
the whole thing)
......
Please click on the Eva's
Art button to read more about Eva's art and visit the
special website run by Eva's sisters Margret and Anette,
all about Eva the painter.

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