Practical Yet Decorative
Muralist Janice Starling Shows Any Wall can be a Canvas
Written by Blair Townley; Photos by Anthony Rao
Ugh, the dentist’s office.
It’s a place that may make your teeth chatter and your nerves stand on end. Yet as you walk around the office, you may catch glimpses of beautiful murals of Italy’s Tuscany ocean and countryside landscape around the office.
Do you feel less stressed? Then muralist Janice Starling of Webster feels she has helped you and other patients of Bushnell Family Dentistry through her artistic talents.
“It’s [art] for the patient to look at as they are being worked on and I wanted something that would distract them,” says Janice who also did marbling and created an accent wall for the office.
Janice has been creating murals since 1997 on everything from the walls of attached villas in The Villages to the Clermont Chamber of Commerce.
The Italian murals at Bushnell Family Dentistry emerged from a brainstorming session between Janice and the practice’s Dr. Joseph Novak over how to “dress” up the office. They also realized Janice’s work could also be helpful in regards to covering up marks left by patients.
“In one part of the [dentist’s office], people come in for surgery and I wanted something that would distract them. The walls were all beat up from the chairs so we created the mural so it was functional as well,” Janice recalls.
Her skills for Tuscan landscape could be attributed to her painting experience transforming Universal’s Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando into an Italian getaway.
“You know the bell tower? I painted the bell tower, nine stories in the air on scaffolding.”
Quite a portfolio for an artist who decided to embark on her current career after her youngest son started school 12 years ago. She had previous art experience in college but considers her art to be her own style.
Her first commissioned mural was a 20-foot long replication of a scene from the children’s movie “The Pagemaster” for the Clermont Elementary School, combining cartoon and realism in one piece.
Since then she has created murals ranging from whimsical to breathtaking in all types of settings. One project had her creating a Monopoly Board inside a child’s playroom; another was a beautiful portrayal in an Ocala couple’s kitchen of their farm, home and animals.
A touching project of Janice’s was painting murals at Arnold Palmer Hospital among children with heart monitors and enduring the effects of chemotherapy. As she painted, she remembers “painting and crying because it is such an honor to do this kind of thing.”
The end result of her hard work was a panoramic portrait in one of the hospital play rooms of Florida history from Seminole Indians to Disney World. “It was something the patients could look at and get lost into to forget about their problems for a moment.”
Finding a common artistic ground between herself and the client is where Janice feels she can further that connection between her acrylic paints, her hands and the walls of the home or building.
“Sometimes my clients have an idea that is very clear and exactly what they want and I create what they see,” Janice states. “I will just kind of see it and I may look at their rug or bedspread and see a design in it and create a similar design.”
Her future plans include staying in touch with her eight sons, whether it is painting alongside her son Spencer and possibly painting her son Joe’s future restaurant. Art will always be in Janice’s outlook as she continues to create murals that are soothing to the eyes and mind, even while you are at the dentist.
For more info call (352) 303-0991
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