A&A Rótulos y Murales

A&A Signs and Murals is a husband and wife mural team originally from Emporia, Kansas.

Andrea Polzin is the lead artist and designer. She works closely with clients to design and finalize the artwork they paint all over the country. She graduated high school and immediately started apprenticing with her father, John Foster, who has worked in graphic design for 30 years and has 40 years of traditional sign painting experience. Andrea has been painting since she was very young and has taken it very seriously for the last 10 years.

Alex is the business and project manager who makes sure everything is in order, from the lift they use to the paint and painting supplies needed for each job. He started as a business major and entrepreneur, then began his work as a painter when he met Andrea in 2010. He has thrown himself into the technical aspects of painting both signs and murals. Business is his passion, but he has added his special touch to the lettering, design, and painting of every mural they complete.

Together, Andrea and Alex have a combined 25 years of experience and are continuously dedicated to expanding their abilities and challenging themselves to do their best work time and time again.

They have completed projects with small communities such as their own Emporia and the surrounding area, Medicine Lodge, and as far as Cocoa, Florida. They are currently planning to install a 20’x5′ mural in Bridgeport, Connecticut in December 2022. With so much already planned for 2023 in Kansas, they are eager to collaborate with other towns and communities across the USA.

A&A Signs and Murals prides itself on creating high-quality artwork using high-quality paint made specifically for murals. They aim to create value for both small and large communities—artwork that will stand the test of time and endure the elements. They understand that every commissioned piece is a major investment in the town itself and strive to ensure it remains for as long as possible.

For these reasons, they go above and beyond in preparation, making sure everything is cleaned well and applied in a way that protects the building from moisture. They also use paint rated lightfastness 1 & 1+ to ensure the mural looks good and lasts as long as possible.

A&A successfully planned and executed a community color-by-numbers at Earthly Delights in Emporia that drew over 300 people from all over the world. They held it during the September First Friday art walk which was happening during the Disc Golf worlds cup and had people participating from all over the nation as well as from overseas. There were a large number of international students that came and participated from Emporia State University. The project planned was finished long before the event was done so Andrea improvised on-site an entire other wall and continued the artwork so more people could participate.

A&A Signs and Murals successfully planned and executed a community color-by-numbers event at Earthly Delights in Emporia that drew over 300 participants from around the world. The event was held during the September First Friday art walk, which coincided with the Disc Golf World Cup, attracting attendees from across the nation and overseas. A large number of international students from Emporia State University also joined in and participated.

The originally planned project was completed well before the event concluded, so Andrea Polzin improvised on-site, expanding the artwork to an entirely new wall to allow even more people to take part.

A&A Signs and Murals typically charges between $12 and $20 per square foot, depending on the quality of the wall and the level of detail in the design. Once a design is agreed upon and the project is scheduled, they require a 50% deposit up front to begin securing supplies and materials. Each project is unique and may involve different pricing considerations based on its specific needs.

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A&A Signs and Murals has very few restrictions when it comes to travel. They frequently work on the road and are comfortable spending anywhere from a week to a month in a given location. They genuinely enjoy immersing themselves in the communities that host them.

Their only requirement is to have at least one to two months of lead time for planning. This allows them to source the necessary materials and ensure the design is approved by the committees and communities involved in the project.

"Saludos desde Emporia" was their first large scale mural done at home and they are very proud of it. Alex worked tirelessly with the city and state historic society for six months to ensure that the historic brick would not be harmed or compromised with the project. They started in September of 2021 and had it completed in 8 days. They worked with Evergy to turn off the buildings power when it was convenient to the owners of the business in the building so they could safely work and not jeopardize themselves or the property. They used TSP and distilled water to wash the wall then applied Loxon masonry primer to the proper area. That took about three days. Then they used Nova Color mural paint to lay in the design. They work primarily with brush and roller, but they are both able to use a sprayer and plan to incorporate that into their future work. They used a transparency projector to shoot the design onto the primed surface and then it took five days to paint in the full color design.

"Tigres de Fort Scott" Both of these tigers were painted in 2015 in Fort Scott, Kansas. The larger tiger with the lettering was supervised by Andrea’s father, John Foster who has 40 years of experience in traditional hand painted signs. They used Zinsser primer as a base and Sherwin Williams paint to complete the mural in about 4 days. Then they returned 3 months later and completed the smaller tiger in 24 hours using Zinsser primer as a base, and 5 cans of Sherwin Williams paint.

"Medicine Lodge" They had so much support from this small community when coming into this project. They submitted an initial concept for a call to artists they stumbled upon and were so excited when they got the call that they had won the project. They spent approximately three months working back and forth with Barber County United and the Chamber of Commerce to hone the design to be something that fit well into their community. They then received their half up front and got them in the schedule. This piece is 23’x65′ and took them two weeks to complete. The city initially supplied them with scaffolding but then found a community businessman who generously donated their lift for the remaining ten days which made the job about a million times easier. They also helped by having someone disconnect the street light next to the wall for a few days so they could get the design projected onto the wall. They projected it about three times with their transparency projector to make sure they knew exactly where to prime (as they did an exclusion of the lettering of “Medicine Lodge.” They did this so it would be easily readable, no matter what happens to the color of the mural in the next 20 years.) and then to get their design outlined onto the primed surface.
The community was super gracious, many of the residents drove past daily to shout encouragement and excitement. They had an unveiling ceremony and got to meet a lot of the town. It was an amazing opportunity and really showed why they love what they do and the impact it can have on the morale of a place. They are still hearing how much the town loves this piece and have been invited back to do another mural early next year. They actually got several more jobs in the community after having developed these relationships and have been contacted by a couple other towns to see if they could come work with them. They are so excited for these opportunities.

"Delicias terrenales"

They were contacted about two weeks before the First Friday when they actually executed this project by Kaila Mock at Emporia First Friday. They had discussed this concept about a month earlier and thought it would be cool but had no solid plans for it. She asked if there was any way they could orchestrate a color-by-numbers for the art walkers to come participate in. They said, “Absolutely we can,” and immediately got to work planning and designing. They had the design planned for 15 colors that Andrea mixed on site. They had to come prep the building as it was only about 80% painted the base green, and then they laid out the design with a king size sharpie so that everyone could clearly see the design and the number associated with each space. They personally painted everything over 8 foot so that participants wouldn’t have to get on a ladder. They also provided a 4×8 panel with a cute simple design for the children under 12 to go to town on. They would not recommend having children under 12 participate on a community mural, but they do recommend having a space for those kids to play with water soluble paint, because they love it but have not yet learned to paint in the lines.
They arrived two hours early on the day of the art walk to prepare the supplies and mix paint and started having people arrive a half hour early. At the busiest part of the evening, there were about 30 people painting simultaneously and at least another 40 spectators, but overall, they estimate at least 300 hands touched that wall that night. Like mentioned in a previous section, Andrea extended the design to the third wall which had not initially been included in the design so that people could get into some painting as they arrived, since the sheer number of participants completed the prepared design in about two hours. They came back a day or two later to finesse and clean up as well as to add a bit of detail.
They absolutely loved this job. It was a lot of prep and a lot of mental energy expended to complete it in such a short amount of time, and coordinating so many people was a challenge with just the two of them, but they both consider it a great success.

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