At the far end of town where the rose bushes grow, and the wind
smells sweet and salty when it blows, and birds sing and chirp high
above the crows … is the school of San Martin/Gwinn.
At the far end of town where the rose bushes grow,
and the wind smells sweet and salty when it blows,
and birds sing and chirp high above the crows …
is the school of San Martin/Gwinn.
The children there who hold paint brushes – they speak for the trees.
Let them grow! Let them grow! They say at the elementary’s after-school mural program. The trees are worth saving!
A four-month study of Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax” and its message of conservation has translated into a vibrant mural of jumbo dimensions that depicts the children’s favorite images from the classic tale. Truffula Trees in every citrus shade sprout from lime-green grass and sway in the hallway just east of the school office.
“It is colorful but powerful at the same time,” said Chile Cifuentes, a Gavilan College art student and co-director of the program with classmate River Hester.
Cifeuntes sits, on the final Friday of painting, soaking brushes in a bucket of brown water and responding to the auditorium of about 10 sixth-graders. The other half of the troupe were at the wall carefully daubing the Bar-ba-Loots and Swomee-Swans with yellow, red and orange.
“Many times children’s books are just pretty pictures,” Cifuentes said.
Christopher Fuentes-Lopez, 12, asks her a question just after expressing how helpful Cifeuntes has been, his white T-shirt is splashed with paint. “Not many make you think,” she added.
The after-school club is reserved for sixth-grade students at San Martin/Gwinn who in January met as muralists for the first time. They work alongside 12 Gavilan art students enrolled in Instructor Arturo Rosette’s mural class. Gavilan students must attend at least two mural workshops at San Martin/Gwinn but many have volunteered again and again or even repeated the class to assist in other murals around South County schools.
“We’ve had the most compliments from students,” said Rosette, an art teacher for 10 years.
“They tried something different,” he said about using a book to guide the mural. “We focused on literature and critical thinking. We integrated those critical thinking skills and we were successful in that regard. They’ve learned how to expand their minds and explore.”
The group has read “The Lorax” through and through, watched the 1972 movie – a new, 3-D spectacle is due out in 2012 – and they have become experts on the story of a self-destructive industrialist Once-ler who devises to destroy the environment for self-interest but is warned by an old forest creature, the Lorax – the vocal defendant of the Earth and its many wondrous creatures and precious trees.
Today, the mural club will toast their hard work with a big slice of cheese pizza and revere in their finished product that the Gavilan students have ordained with their names, forever enshrined on the 10-foot by 30-foot acrylic mural.
Principal Barbara Neal gushed about the mural that can be seen from the front of the school, its bright blue sky peeking out just beyond the office. “The mural is absolutely a masterpiece of artwork and imagination,” she said.
To hear other students talk about it as they walked by during the murals many stages was a true delight for Neal. “It was so interesting to see what the students would say about it. ‘Oh, look at that’ or ‘Oh, I wonder what’s next.'”
It was not just the lure of painting on their schools’ wall that kept the children after school for many Fridays – or just the snacks – but many thought it was “so awesome” to be a part of something permanent that their peers will enjoy for years to come.
“It stands out. In art class, we do it on the small canvas and I thought it was really great to do it so big,” Sara Johnson, 11, said. “When I was in fifth grade, I was always waiting to be in sixth grade so I could do the mural.”
Luis Ruiz, 11, diligently assisted his classmates on perfecting their Humming Fish and Truffula Trees. He spends a lot of his free time penning Mickey Mouse and felt right at home in the mural club.
“This has been a great experience because we get to draw and paint, and a lot of people are going to really like this,” Ruiz said.
Cifuentes is graduating in a week from Gavilan and this mural is the second she has directed. The first is the dynamic blue mural on the auditorium, an immediate signal that you’re at the campus of artistically inclined students. “It’s weird to see it now. Oh my God, it’s a weird feeling,” Cifuentes said. “We put a lot of effort and attention into it.”
Katherine Black and her friend Anna Niehaus, both 11, knew the details of “The Lorax” and the message: Help, don’t hurt the environment.
“We went to bigger and higher heights. It’s been really, really fun, for me at least,” Black said.
“Me too. We got some great ideas from Dr. Seuss,” Niehaus said.
The walls of San Martin/Gwinn and the late Dr. Seuss share at least one thing in common: originality. Just like an art gallery stroll, the students will enjoy a “mural stroll” Monday to view the beauty of the local artwork and pat their peers on the back.
“You can be hella tired … from school from work. But just being here, being around these kids, it makes your day,” Cifuentes said. “You have the rest of the day to be tired, but not here.”
