Murals Lift Artist to New Heights

For all her life, Joan Farr has been an artist but had never really known how much ability she has.

She does now.

“I always took my creativity for granted up to this point in my life,” said Farr, who retired six years ago after 22 years as an art instructor, the last 16 at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. “I now realize I have a gift.”

Although her students have known of her quality and talent as an artist for years, it wasn’t until Farr decided to paint fabric murals for the Anaheim United Methodist Church that she realized herself.

“It’s been a turnaround for me as an artist,” said Farr, 65, a College of the Pacific graduate who did postgraduate work at Cal State Long Beach.

She has spent much of the past six years creating five murals of three panels each that depict Easter, Pentecost, Lent, Advent and Epiphany on satin, rayon and cotton fabric using fabric paint.

The murals were responsible for the church winning the Anaheim Art Council’s Art in Public Place Award in 1990.

“Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming,” the title of the Advent mural currently hanging in the church for the Christmas holiday season, is her favorite.

“I had so much joy putting it together,” said the one-time technical illustrator for North American Aviation. “It shows the beauty of Christmas, love and joy and the celebration of the birth of a special baby.”

The three panels depict Mary and the baby Jesus and two angels.

“It is absolutely gorgeous,” said Farr, a Huntington Beach resident. “When I painted the faces I looked at each one and said ‘Did I do that?’ It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.”

The large expanse of bare walls in the sanctuary had annoyed Farr for years while singing as a member of the church choir. With the blessings of the church’s two pastors, Farr went to the drawing board to create the five seasonal murals.

“I did a lot of of practice before putting it to use,” said Farr, who spent months testing the fabrics and paint. Farr said the fabric method is her own invention. Farr credits her mother, a schoolteacher, with directing her to art.

“My aren’t you clever,” she would always tell me. “I always took it for granted.” Being retired helped Farr during those first days of creating the murals.

“I create better when I’m isolated and have time to think,” she said during an interview in the church sanctuary. “Interruptions while creating were always detrimental to my own creativity.”

She keeps her fabric-painting techniques a closely guarded secret, especially her method of keeping the paint on top of the fabric instead of having it absorbed into the material.

Besides painting, the widowed mother of three grown children is involved in singing with the Orange County Chamber Singers.

She has also sung in China, Lithuania, Australia and New Zealand with the William Hall Chorale.