Real Life Mural: NYC

Photography by Akira Yamada

MURAL ARTIST AMI SUMA had an audience when she was painting Natsume’s bedroom walls in her parents’ NYC apartment. Natsume herself. “She LOVED it from the beginning. She would bring her little chair by and stare at me painting for hours - I really mean for hours! She never got bored. I was totally amazed by her. Her mom tells me she still talks about me a year later.”

But then, it would be difficult not to be intrigued by Suma’s delicate modern take on pink and brown, that was influenced by Natsume’s favourite animals - birds and bears - but also by her parents’ taste. “They left the design completely up to me but just asked me to keep the colour fairly quiet as they had to share the space with Natsume. I didn’t want it to be too childish, so I kept in mind the ‘French shabby-chic / antique’ feeling of the rest of the home, and I tried to keep the silhouettes vintage looking, and the colour minimal and chic.”

Suma pulls it off by pairing soft pinks with beiges and browns “keeping the tones of the colours similar by using soft, antique shades, to calm the pink down a bit.”

But it helps that her approach is inspired by her adult surroundings: “Sometimes clients know exactly what they want,” says Suma, who moved to the US from Japan 15 years ago and works as a freelance fashion editor for the likes of Japanese Elle and Marie Claire. “For example, my little client Juju (who was 3 years old) asked me to draw a yellow lion with black toe nails and a blue monkey for him. More often, I let pencils and paper play freely and see what that takes me to. I’m inspired by anything - from a cartoon I watched yesterday to movies I saw last week, to art works I passed by in Chelsea…”

*Ami Suma’s murals take several days to create (Natsume’s needed around 20 hours). She can travel anywhere in the world to design and paint a mural, which costs from US$700 to $3500 plus travel costs. However, she can also create wall canvases on request. Contact her on T. (00 1) 646-637-3067, www.amisuma.com