"Putting Art in its Place"
Youth Mural Project
A project of Ableza,
funded by the City of San Jose
Office of Cultural Affairs, and private donations.
Diane Way, Artistic Director of Ableza, conceived, developed and coordinated
this project to place young "outdoor artists" with a professional
muralist (Ableza's Ernest Regua) and to have them design and paint a large-scale
mural which reflects their cultures and heritages. A video of the process
is being produced, and will be available later. This was a truly "multi-cultural"
project, with youth representing several American Indian tribes, and several
countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Central and South America.
With assistance from San Jose City Council Woman Alice Woody and Silver
Creek High School of San Jose, we chose a corner wall (52' x 20') facing
several busy streets and the school's bus stop. Over the course of a six-week
formal program, and several weeks of additional time volunteered by the
artists, the participants designed and painted their wall. The first phase
was cleaning the brown wall and priming it white. Phase two was designing
the images, phase three the initial painting, and phase four the finished
product.
Click on the small images below for larger versions!
The wall,
phase three.
A bit more
design, and artists working.
The finished
wall!
The names
of the artists.
Ernest Regua,
artist mentor, guiding the younger artists.
Young artists
with David Yohn, video artist, trying to paint.
Young artists
working on the mural.
Detail of
young artist working on American Indian section.
What he
produced!
The American
Indian section under re-design and nearing completion.
Mexico,
Central and South American section.
Right side
of wall, the South Pacific, Asian and African sections.
Detail of
the Samoan section.
The Hawaiian/Filipino
section.
African
section.
Young artist
working on the Asian Dragon.
Detail of
the Dragon section. Notice the orb in its claw.
The right
side wall nearing completion.
Finished
wall detail.