> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://bl.ag/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Chain Letter: Meghan McDermott - URL: https://bl.ag/chain-letter-meghan-mcdermott/ - Published: 2025-11-13T14:00:04.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-03T08:15:40.000Z - Description: The Dublin mural by Vanessa Power that inspired Meghan McDermott to become a sign painter. - Author: Better Letters - Tags: People, Chain Letter ‘[Chain Letter](https://bl.ag/tag/chainletter/)’ invites a sign painter or lettering artist to share a piece of lettering that has influenced or inspired them, before passing the baton to someone else, in a never-ending chain. In [the last one](https://bl.ag/chain-letter-guido-de-boer/), [Guido de Boer](https://www.guidodeboer.info/?ref=bl.ag) nominated [Miranda Ensink](https://www.signpaintersandco.com/?ref=bl.ag), who has passed it quickly on to [Meghan McDermott](https://mcdermottdesign.ie/?ref=bl.ag). Meghan is a painter of signs, murals, and sets, and is now living and working in Ireland again after a two year stint in The Netherlands. ### What have you selected? I’ve chosen a mural by Vanessa at [Signs of Power](https://www.signsofpower.com/?ref=bl.ag). Vanessa is a sign painter and mural artist from Dublin who also works in stained glass and mosaic. (See some of Vanessa’s adventures in mosaic making in [BLAG 06](https://bl.ag/06), and [here at bl.ag online](https://bl.ag/irish-mosaics-from-roscommon-to-the-world/).) The line on this mural — ‘Me Aul Flower’ — is an Irish term of endearment, especially in Dublin where it’s located. ![Mural with block and shade lettering for 'Me Aul Flower' set within an array of pale pink flowers. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/aa/24aaa208-ebb0-4f83-bc52-1f4f253367c8/content/images/2025/11/Me-Aul-Flower-Signs-of-Power.jpg) ‘Me Aul Flower’ by Vanessa Power, aka Signs of Power. ### How did it inspire you? I used to walk past this mural on the way to my barista job in Dublin city during that stressful post-art college ‘What do I do now, am I actually qualified for anything?’ phase. I was working as a TV makeup artist (which I was qualified for) as well as a prop maker/scenic painter/oil painter, alongside the standard issue art grad coffee job. (Shout out to [Proper Order Coffee](https://www.properordercoffeeco.com/?ref=bl.ag) for being the only one paying me properly.) I mentioned the mural to my boss one day and he said that Vanessa had actually painted their shop signage, menu and A-board. “She’s a signwriter”, he said, which was something I had never heard of. Cue a lightbulb moment and a flurry of creeping through Instagram profiles and following all these new signwriter people. Vanessa’s style in particular, with its blend of modern aesthetics and traditional techniques, really stuck with me. I loved how big, bold and playful her work was, and I continue to keep this in mind when my designs get a little stodgy or fussy with traditional looks. ![Sign painter in a hat painting onto a wall with some ladders between them and the viewer.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/aa/24aaa208-ebb0-4f83-bc52-1f4f253367c8/content/images/2025/11/Me-Aul-Flower-WIP.jpeg) Vanessa Power at work on her Dublin mural. One final (laughably awful) makeup contract and a pandemic lockdown later, I figured I may as well give it a go and took [Liane Barker’s intro to signwriting workshop](https://www.masteringtheartofsignwriting.com/?ref=bl.ag) over Zoom. If I hadn’t walked past that mural every week, I probably never would have discovered signwriting, and the community that goes with it. Thankfully, Vanessa took it well when we finally did meet and I blurted all this to her within about four seconds. ### Who would you like to see next in the Chain Letter? I'd like to pass the chain to [Vanessa Power](https://www.signsofpower.com/?ref=bl.ag). **Meghan McDermott /** [**mcdermottdesign.ie**](https://mcdermottdesign.ie/?ref=bl.ag) --- ### More Chain Letters [Chain Letter - BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & CultureInspiring lettering in a never-ending chain.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/aa/24aaa208-ebb0-4f83-bc52-1f4f253367c8/content/images/icon/BLAG_Issue_07_60_x_60-23.jpg)BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & CultureBetter Letters![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/aa/24aaa208-ebb0-4f83-bc52-1f4f253367c8/content/images/thumbnail/One-Mans-Trash-Julia-Tulke-on-Flickr-1600.jpg)](https://bl.ag/tag/chainletter/) ### More People [Sign Painter Profiles on Better Letters MagazineInterviews, films, and profiles of sign painters past and present.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/aa/24aaa208-ebb0-4f83-bc52-1f4f253367c8/content/images/icon/BLAG_Issue_07_60_x_60-24.jpg)BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & CultureBetter Letters![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/aa/24aaa208-ebb0-4f83-bc52-1f4f253367c8/content/images/thumbnail/Cyril-Foster-Trinidad-01-1-5.jpg)](https://bl.ag/tag/people/)