About Colleen
For almost 24 years, Colleen Phelon Hall has been transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Colleen's unique combination of creativity, artistic skill, desire to make a difference, and project management experience has allowed her to bring dreams to life! With Colleen's vision, a mural project brought current and former school community members together to celebrate Maggie L. Walker, visually archiving her many contributions. A blank brick wall downtown became a colorful community mural project aimed at "Transforming Perspectives" on aging and drawing attention to an important nonprofit, Senior Connections.
In a hospital unit in Norway, Colleen's paintings pierced the sterile walls, acting as windows onto the unique landscape and wildlife of Norway. She has served commercial and residential clients both here and abroad creating artwork for celebrities such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z along with royal and VIP clients. Colleen's work has been recognized in publications such as The Wall Street Journal to The Daily Mail. Whether a large commercial installation, an intimate pet portrait, or custom travel memory, Colleen can bring your ideas to fruition! |
Colleen's recent work includes artwork that aims to raise awareness of important issues, like aging and the environment, by engaging the community. The Transforming Perspectives collaborative mural project aims to highlight the positive and transformative aspects of aging while increasing the awareness of senior issues and the resources available to help. Colleen partnered with Senior Connections and Genworth to create this mural based on input from over 170 older adults. The mural was then painted by 515 people, ages 2 to 102 at 11 community parties! It was installed on October 22, 2017. |
Current Project - Collaborative Community Mural about Maggie L. Walker
|
In a city of monuments and murals, Colleen felt there was a tremendous lack of acknowledgment of the contributions made by women and especially women of color. Colleen really wanted to raise up these too often "hidden figures." Happily, Maggie L. Walker has finally gotten her monument but Colleen felt strongly she needed a mural also! Colleen worked with students at the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies in Richmond along with alumni of the original Maggie L. Walker High School (opened in 1938 as the second segregated high school for African American students). This project aimed to bring people together to raise awareness of the many accomplishments of Maggie L. Walker. She began her career as a teacher and went on to become the first woman to charter a bank!. She published a newspaper essential to the early civil rights activism and opened up the Emporium, a department store in reaction to discrimination against her African American community. She empowered and employed many in the Jackson Ward community through her philanthropic and entrepreneurial activities. By actively engaging alumni from the original Maggie L. Walker High School, MLWGS students and alumni, we hope to honor her legacy by involving as many people as possible from the design all the way through to the painting of the mural. Over 125 participants took part in a survey about the contents of the mural. Art students helped with research and created thumbnails. Colleen used these inputs to create possible design options. A mural committee approved a final design. Projection of the gridded images took place during February to celebrate Black History Month. Paint parties began in March, during Women's History Month. Over 325 people helped to paint the final mural. Installation was completed on May 10th. Dr. Johnny Mickens III, the great-grandson of Maggie L. Walker and his family attended the initial celebration of the mural held on May 18th.
|
|
Recently Completed Project - The Faison Center for Autism
|
|
Colleen was commissioned by the Faison Center for Autism to create murals in the hallways of the school building. Colleen used the new graphic logo for The Faison Center's new building as inspiration for the color scheme and style of the artwork. Instead of painting directly on the wall, the client originally asked for artwork on 4x8 foot panels. Colleen decided to create the mural by exploding out of the rectangular confines and instead filling the halls with organically shaped wooden cutouts. Designed to bring the outside in in a colorful and welcoming way, Colleen transformed the graphic triangles into a mountain landscape and created wildlife in a similar, flat, origami-style. An entry column was transformed into a tree, complete with a raccoon peaking out to greet students and families.
|
Public Sculpture - Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
|
As a part of the "Wild Art" Exhibition, Colleen created "Turtle Island", a living sculpture. Colleen sought to bring to life, the Iroquois creation story where earth is started on the back of a turtle. She was intrigued to learn that many cultures including India and China also centered around the slow but steady turtle. Passionate about the environment, Colleen also noted the symbolism of the turtle to represent the environmental movement. She created this sculpture specifically for the Children's Garden with an educational message for the children about the need for perseverance in protecting our earth. Community volunteers got to help "plant" water wise succulents that Colleen had selected to further show an understanding of conservation and resources. Over 200 community members took part in an online contest to name the turtle. Another 120 voted and selected "Honu", the Hawaiian word for turtle as the turtle's name. The sculpture was so popular it remained for several months after the original end of the "Wild Art" Exhibition.
|
|
ASK Hematology/Oncology Clinic - Children's Hospital of Richmond
|
|
Colleen was thrilled to be asked back to paint murals for this new version of the clinic at the new Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU. The Association for the Support of Children with Cancer (ASK) sponsors this clinic where children come to receive chemotherapy and other infusion treatments. Colleen painted the original ASK clinic way back in 2003 with underwater tropical fish scenes. In keeping with the river theme of the new hospital, Colleen was asked to focus on river fish and paint the mural on wooden panels rather than directly on the wall. These colorful paintings on panel are mounted on the wall to help create a colorful, whimsical yet calm scene for the patients. Colleen included some of her favorite otters and turtles along with different fish from the James River.
|
Collaborative Church Community Mural
|
St. Mark's United Methodist Church wanted to create a mural near their children's education classrooms that symbolized the faith journey they hoped to inspire. They decided on a graphic style with bold colors to be relatable to the children. Phase one was the central panel of the scene. In order to work with the church's budget and make the mural collaborative with the church community, Colleen suggested that she would design the mural and paint the simplified outlines for the mural and then designate the "paint by number" areas for community members of all ages to be able to assist. Approximately 60 people helped paint the mural!
|
|
Portfolio of Other Projects
Celebrity Clients and Press
|
Over the years, Colleen is thrilled to have been been selected to create work for VIP and Celebrity clients. Her work for celebrity clients and members of Middle Eastern Royalty have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mail, The Spectator. Colleen has painted wallhangings for Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Mark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham, Sylvestor Stallone and Jennifer Flavin, Giulianna and Bill Rancic, and NBA player Carone and Andrea Butler. She painted a custom mural for Teresa Giudice of the TV show, "Real Housewives of New Jersey." Her painting has also been featured on the cover of several PoshTots catalogues and on MTV.
|
|
