The Tap Room: making of a trompe l'oeil mural

Creating a mural that transforms architecture is a fabulous creative process. First, a concept needs to be born. For this mural at Still Hill Brewery, we were inspired by the logo created by Gary Holmes of Gariphic. Originally, the brewery owners contacted us to paint that mural on the wall. When Tao saw the future tap room space, he instantly imagined the logo in the form of a rusty old sign, inside of an old barn known as Still Hill. The story and visual unfolded in his mind and he created the visual to share with the brewery owners. They too fell in love with it, and hired us to create the mural. Along the way, Tao took many progressive images during the creation of this large-scale, indoor mural at Still Hill Brewery. He would stop painting, take a picture, paint some more, set up some automatic shots from his phone, and paint some more. We also used some other images available to us as content. 

Our gratitude to Matt Seremet that constructed this video and animated various elements from the mural artwork. Let us know what you think. It's pretty wild!  

Middletown Press Article

Here's an article on the large-scale mural at Still Hill Brewery, from the Middletown Press. CLICK HERE! 

Photo by Kathleen Schassler

Reception for large scale mural on March 13 in Rocky Hill, CT

Still Hill Brewery Before

Art of Tao LaBossiere LLC is pleased to announce the completion of a large-scale mural project at Still Hill Brewery, “The Tap Room”. A public reception will be held at Still Hill Brewery, Shunpike Business Center, 1275 Cromwell Avenue, Building C, Unit 8/9, Rocky Hill, CT, on March 13, 2016, 2 to 5 pm. Please join us for a brief artist talk at 3 pm. Food and refreshments will be provided and the Brewery will be open for sales. 

About the work:

“The Tap Room” is another architectural transformation mural by Tao LaBossiere.  It takes a plain wall and transforms it with trompe l’oeil painting to become an old barn interior, featuring old post and beam architecture, plank walls, brown bottles and antique signs.  The concept was created by Tao LaBossiere with input from Amy LaBossiere, along with Still Hill Brewery owners Scott and Sue Barbanel. The mural is 16 ft high x 43 ft long on two walls in Still Hill Brewery’s Tap Room. The Project took two and half months to complete, with some assistance by Hartford artist Dwight Teal, Jr. and Simsbury artist Julie Pereira. Hidden within the mural, one can find likenesses of the LaBossiere’s dogs, Maggie and BeeBe, a likeness of Amy LaBossiere and Tao’s father, Paul LaBossiere. Tao often hides whimsical elements within each mural he creates.

About Still Hill Brewery:

Still Hill Brewery is Rocky Hill, CT’s first microbrewery, founded by brewmaster Scott Barbanel. Still Hill’s taproom is a place to relax with a pint or flight of each beer style. They fill all growlers or sell their own in 32 or 64 oz bottles. In the future they will provide kegs to restaurants and bars and in bottles to selected package stores. Open Friday 4-8 and Saturday 12-6PM For more information about the brewery, calendar and its beer, visit stillhillbrewery.com.

About Art of Tao LaBossiere:

The Art of Tao LaBossiere LLC is a creative services company, providing murals and public art to businesses, municipalities, universities and art patrons. The Art of Tao LaBossiere is managed by husband and wife team Tao & Amy LaBossiere and based in Hartford, CT. Recent mural projects include “Welcome Home” at Scott’s Jamaican Bakery; “Smokehouse” at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ Hartford; and “Everlasting Spring in the Secret Garden” at Saint Mary Home, West Hartford. For more information, visit artoftaolabossiere.com or facebook.com/artoftao.               

Welcome Home Community Mural

Led by master artist and Connecticut muralist Tao LaBossiere, the team of artists co-created a large-scale mural that celebrates what home means to them in the City of Hartford’s North End community. 

The artists and project planning team would like to thank the people and places of North Hartford that inspired “Welcome Home”. 

“Welcome Home” planning team: Thea Montanez of North Hartford Promise Zone, Tao & Amy LaBossiere of The Art of Tao LaBossiere, Patrick McKenna, Gina Muslim and John Thomas of Community Solutions; Ryan O’Halloran and Ron Pitz of Knox, Inc., and Gordon Scott of Scott’s Jamaican Bakery.

What goes into planning and creating a community mural?
Check out this video that highlights some of the process.