Marine Corps Base Quantico -- Mae Mathieu didn’t enjoy looking at the drab cinderblock walls of her shoebox office at 2010 Henderson Road, the Marine Corps Installations National Capital Region Regional Contracting Office (RCO).

So she painted an American flag over one entire 8-by-16 foot wall.

“How I got the idea is, there are 13 rows of cinderblocks,” said Mathieu, the deputy for Small Business Programs at the RCO. “And there are 13 stripes on the American flag. I remember that from all the way back to kindergarten.”

“I got engaged and married on the 13th, too,” she added. “It’s funny how some numbers just stick with you.”

Mathieu said she wanted a conversation piece for her wall because she spends much of her day meeting with small business owners who want to contract with the Marine Corps. Many of them are service-disabled veterans and she wanted to create something they would appreciate.

“And I was tired of looking at peeling paint,” she said.

Mathieu started at the RCO in May and thought about her project throughout June. At the end of the month, she approached her supervisor, Lt. Col. Brian Wobensmith.

“He was on board with it,” Mathieu said. “The building is scheduled to be demolished anyway, so he said I might as well do it!”

She purchased three quarts of paint from Sherwin Williams in antique blue, red, and white colors and paint brushes from the Exchange aboard base. Working on her own time for about half an hour a day, she first painted the entire wall white, then the red stripes (using the width of the cinderblocks as a guide), and finally the blue canton. She cut star shapes out of paper and painted around them to make the 50 stars.

“You can see some of the stripes aren’t exactly straight,” she said. “It looks like the flag is blowing in the wind!”

Mathieu said it took her a total of about eight hours over the course of 10 to 12 days to finish the project. It would take her half an hour to paint one stripe because two coats of paint were necessary.

“I stayed two hours late one night to finish it because I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said.

The finished project has gotten a positive response.

“The facilities guy said he wants to salute every time he sees it,” Mathieu said. “I told him he can!”

Mathieu said that her career ambition in high school was to be an art teacher. When a budget cut resulted in two of her art teachers being fired, she decided it wasn’t the safest career field, but she made it a hobby. She paints landscapes and describes herself as “literally an arts and crafts person,” making jewelry out of wine bottles and flags out of wooden pallets.

She has never painted a mural before and isn’t sure whether she’ll do another.

“Lt. Col. Wobensmith would love me to paint a ‘Don’t tread on me’ flag on the other wall, but I don’t want that much yellow!” she said.

Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com