Beyond the Build

Team Building

Artful Living

To me, enjoying some form of art should be part of life, in balance with everything else we think that is important.

It was not that long ago that I met Trés Taylor and his wife Helene, folk artists who paint using tarpaper and acrylics as their medium. I got a chance to work with them on a mural last spring, and then we decided to commission Trés and Helene to make something special for our place. While I have learned that one should never tell an artist how to create, they did ask for our input. We landed on “The Sharing Table,” which highlights a portion of our company’s values. We found a lot of enjoyment in the process. They created a watercolor sketch as a map, then we had a “paint party” one Friday afternoon in the barn to get the piece started. Tres later fine tuned the details and added the finish coat of varnish.

Merrill Stewart Jr.

Merrill Stewart is Founder and CEO of The Stewart/Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham.