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Painting Tulsa Brick By Brick

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Tulsa artist is hoping we aren't taking some of our most interesting buildings for granted.

Her new project called "Tulsa Brick by Brick" aims to preserve these buildings on canvas.

"They say if you paint what you love it will show."

Web Extra: Celeste Vaught's Website

Celeste Vaught has had a love affair with Tulsa architecture since she was a child. One of her favorite buildings is the 310 Boston building.

"I wanted to capture the feeling of a kid coming to the big city for the first time and looking up at the buildings and being so excited," Vaught said.

She says too many of us pass these places every day and just take them for granted. She decided to not be one of those people.

So when she sees something that strikes her like the City Veterinary Hospital in Brookside she takes its picture.

"I'm usually captured by the form of the building first," Vaught said.

It was dusk and the lights inside were on. She loved the contrast and that will be the next painting in the series.

Her painting of the Phoenix Cleaners was accepted into the Philbrook miniature show and it sold.

"Somebody said I'm so glad a Tulsa artist is painting Tulsa," Vaught said.

She has her work on display in galleries around the area like these at the Pearl Gallery, and the enthusiasm for her project is beginning to take off.

"It's more than I ever imagined," Vaught said.

People who see her paintings are contributing personal stories about the buildings she has painted and she's collecting those on her website.

This Brick By Brick project began with a simple painting of Claud's Hamburgers on Peoria but she has no idea where it will end.

"I think there is beauty all around us, no matter where we are; you just have to find it."