5 + 1 questions with Alamosa artist Casey McCoy

When you walk into the community room of the new Rio Grande Hospital Wellness Center, your attention is immediately drawn to the drywall art relief that graces the entrance. It’s Casey McCoy’s artistic reflection of healthy living.

The artist is standing near the relief at the center’s grand opening on July 22, beaming with pride as well-wishers greet him and marvel at the piece before them. 

McCoy, a self-taught artist, said he worked for about two months on this drywall art. He also creates murals, drawings and other pieces. His work can be found around the Valley – at the Colorado Welcome Center and at other businesses.

Here’s our 5+1 questions with the artist, edited slightly for length and clarity:

1. Describe the work that you did here and how it all came together. It’s an amazing piece.

Thank you, I sure appreciate it. So it took a little over about two months to make. It’s all made out of drywall mud, and it was neat when Arlene (Harms, CEO of Rio Grande Hospital) approached me. I made one of these for the Right Carpet Store in Alamosa. When she had approached me about getting one of these made for her here, I was right away, I want to jump on board with what they’re representing, the whole Blue Zones about healthy living and lifestyle and love and care and family and having a tribe to belong to people who are cheering you on through this life. I instantly knew that this is my art piece. I need to be involved in that. So there was a lot of time spent in it and a lot of heart.

2. How do you perfect this type of art, working with drywall mud this way?

It’s just, it’s got to be a God-given gift because it just comes naturally. I don’t understand how you could not do something like this. I love it. I’ve always made artwork throughout my whole life, but so trying to take everything I’ve been learning throughout my life on how to draw, how to paint, and now applying it to a new medium is all a part of the fun and the experience. So a lot of this was just trial and error up to this point. Now I understand how drywall mud works, so now I can make stuff with it.

3. Do you start with a sketch?

I do. I do. I’ll start with a drawing reference. I came up with three different ideas for this. Arlene and her team all chose this one, and then from here I draw it on the wall and start slapping mud on there.

4. How do you get the 3D effect?

You build it up. So with the mud and a little bit of other secret ingredients that you throw in there to kind of help strengthen it, you just shape it as if you were working with clay to get the basic form. As it hardens, you carve it away like you’re doing woodwork, where you’ve taken carving tools and cut away shapes until eventually you get the fine details like hands and fingers and fingernails.

5. Where do you get the facial representation? For the models on the wall that come off the wall?

Yeah. Some is just good old Google research looking at different pictures of what people look like while they’re in that pose or things. So I looked at a couple of different reference photos online, but then also looking at the hands. I was studying my hands as I was working on this lady’s hands and how my hand bends and what carves and forms and just take off from there.

6. You have a lot of detail, from the trees to a cross to hikers. How did you organize that?

So you could call it controlled chaos. It’s great. So all this whole spinning and spirals, it all comes together to tell one story and that’s a story of this young lady who’s sitting here with her hands open, ready to receive inspiration, and you can see her daydreaming, of being with her family, holding her grandma, or healthy living, healthy lifestyle, healthy eating, belonging to a group of people who are her supporters and they have a goal. They’re reaching toward, walking toward the cross, and they have a goal together and working together, the whole thing eventually comes together to make something great.