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New York artist Gigi Chen shares her deeply personal experience painting a large-scale muralthe size of a bedroom-for an artist residency

- Gigi Chen

Murals have been a big part of my life as an artist for about 15 years. As a studio artist whose predominant focus is making medium- to smaller-scale work for gallery shows, painting murals makes me feel powerful. It's really exciting to get a chance to stretch beyond my own physical limitations. For those interested, I am 5 feet and 1 inch tall, though I've been told that I tend to carry myself as a much taller person and have gotten better at speaking louder in order to not be ignored. My own version of a Napoleon complex.

While murals are a part of my life as an artist, they have always generally been for private clients and not always for the public. In the summer of 2022, I was offered a three-month residency with 4Heads, an artist-run organization based in New York City, established in 2008. They were the first group to create art programs on Governors Island, which is a five minute ferry ride off of downtown Manhattan. The historic island was used during the American Revolutionary War (there are two really cool original forts there), later a military base and is now a city-run public park. 4Heads ran a very popular art fair on Governors Island (which ended in 2019) and an Artist Residency along the historic Colonel's Row, made up of 19th-century brick and wood framing that were once officers quarters. I grew up in busy Queens, New York, and I currently live in West Harlem, uptown in Manhattan. While I had an hour-plus commute by subway and ferry ride, I came to look forward to getting to the calm of Governors Island.