Jason Hulfish, Mural Artist

I discovered this short article about Jason Hulfish earlier this week, Mural artist brings imaginations to life in children's rooms by Alicia Roberts.  The artwork with the article was intriguing, so I read it.  Here's an excerpt:

Artist Jason Hulfish paints murals as big as the imaginations of the children who sleep among the fire-breathing dragons, open-sea pirates and beautiful princesses he brings to life in their bedrooms.

Although Hulfish admits he was one of those kids who sketched designs in his notebook at school while he was supposed to be taking notes, his initial artscapes were a bit smaller in scale.

"I started doing T-shirt designs," he admits. "My friends liked them and said, 'Hey, can you put this on my wall?' One thing led to another."

Bringing form and function to fantasy takes work. Hulfish designs each room with one-of-a-kind murals, painting each from floor to ceiling. He also incorporates custom furniture such as a pirate or princess-carriage bed that he creates and builds.

The 39-year-old artist grew up in St. Petersburg and lives in Tampa. He went to college as a pre-med chemistry major, decided it wasn't for him, and joined the corporate world for a while. He started painting murals at friends' homes and turned his passion into a full-time job in 2005.

So of course, I wondered if Hulfish has a website.  He does!  See Jfishart.com.

No, really, you must go there.  I only picked the rooms that are remotely fairy tale related to share here. 

But I fell in love with several of his room designs, many of which are in no way related to fairy tales.  There are pirates and oceans and Star Wars and jungles and fairies.  I didn't feature the fairies either. 

The picture above is lovely.  I would probably choose a garden for my walls.  I always like to be surrounded by sunshine and gardens.  My productivity goes up, too.  And clouds on the ceiling is always a very good thing...unless they are real and then you might have a problem.

But I would be tempted by a Jack and the Beanstalk room or fire breathing dragons.  Perhaps I'd choose Sleeping Beauty's bower, but I would probably prefer no people.  I would always wonder if they were watching me if they were life size.

But I know there are some blessed children with rooms like these in Tampa.  Wow...

You can click on the images to see them larger.  Or visit Hulfish's site to see these and many more.