What's one more mural?

       
      This spring we were taken by surprise wahen a group from Ameri Corps came to our school offering to do a community beautification work day.  The plan was to plant flowers, clean up and paint murals with volunteers for about 4 to 6 hours.  Over 150 people showed up and it was quite a huge project.  I met with the planning committee and we decided where they could add murals to the school.  One particular dream of mine was to do a whole section of 10 classrooms in a U shape with a grassy area in the middle.  On this work day the volunteers basically finished the whole background for the ocean, mountains and deserts of California.  

        
      Although this wasn't on our mural schedule we decided that it couldn't wait.  Part of the Ameri Corps agreement was that the city would spray their murals with a clear anti-graffiti coating soon afterward so if we wanted to add anything to it we had to get to work fast!   A week later my volunteer friend Sue and I began to work with the children from first grade on the Ocean mural.  They used brushes, decorative rollers and sponges to add all the detail found in sea life.  

       
       After two long days we moved on to the Mountains mural with the third grade.  They worked enthusiastically chatting about all the animals and foliage that grow in our mountains.

    
  Two more days passed and amidst an early heat wave we were determined to finish  the Desert.  The second grade made this wall their own adding all manner of cactus, animals and texture to the background.

    
           It was utterly amazing to see the transformation of a whole section of classrooms!  Talk about WOW!   The effort put out by some 250 students with 2 volunteers in 36 hours was a real testimony to the school of the power of a community working together with a purpose.

Lesson Learned: Using textured rollers and sponges for painting details adds life to a simple mural and children of all ages can participate.

Where do we all come from?

                                    
         Enthusiasm for beautifying our school was beginning to grow with each new mural.  At the same time budget cuts in the school district made it impossible to pay me to teach art.  The joy of teaching those children art and seeing their enthusiasm and progress made it obvious that I had to volunteer at least one day a week to continue the art program I had worked so hard to establish for two years.  To augment their experience we sought a grant to continue painting murals and were awarded another beautification grant from the city of Los Angeles.  This time it was specifically for doing a number of murals and someone picked the lucky number 7 out of a hat!  That was quite a challenge.  Beginning in March we worked around rain, heat and wind to try to paint on our murals one day a week.  The goal was to have as many children as possible participate in the project to "make it their own".  
        The first two murals were about the history of immigration in the U.S.A.  beginning with the pilgrims and moving on through 400 years ending with looking to the future.  It was done on two walls of adjoining buildings that are visible to parents when they arrive to pick up their children at the garden gate.  One of the fun challenges was to incorporate the pipes that were left on the walls after a retrofitting into the picture.  We even had to have an art history lesson about Diego Rivera while working on the one below!

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