seahorse murals

Mike bought the Seahorse and got his captains license. Edrianna went on become a scuba instructor trainer at ProDive in Ft. Lauderdale. I became a divemaster and worked for fun part time for Mike.

Captain Mike is a great "idea" guy and had a lot of cool ideas to improve his boat and make it unique in the dive industry. I am a great "get it done" guy and helped bring Mike's dreams to reality. He mentioned wanting a mural depicting the entire Caribbean Sea region painted on the ceiling of the dive deck cabin and I volunteered, not even thinking about the scope of the project or logistics. Oh yea, I had never painted a mural before!

Here's the Readers Digest version... I worked on my back on a shaky scaffold in the evening. The spotlight I used attracted mosquitoes and large scary flying insects that stuck to the wet paint. The boat rocked violently every time another boat sailed by in the marina and did I mention I get seasick? It was a good thing that I do fine unless I smell diesel fuel or noxious paint fumes. And did I forget to mention I was working over 200 gallons of diesel fuel and painting with automotive paint? Michelangelo, I feel your pain.

Anyway, I worked a few hours in the evening every week for 6 months and completed the mural. As a bonus I painted a mermaid in the boats head (toilet for you landlubbers). This was selfish on my part because she pointed to the flush button and I was tired of telling divers where it was during dive briefings. I called it functional art!

Mike and I are still great friends and continue to work on music projects together. We both played in a classic surf band, the Surfintones for a few years and we are about to start up a recording project...stay tuned!

Back to Architectural Rendering Gallery

Back to jimstilwell.com