Public Murals & Student Projects
The Spirit of Coalition, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
144” x 96”
The Artist Crew from left to right: DaQuasia Myrick, Eloida Baltazar, Danielle Young, Nadirah Johnson, Saul Perez, Mia Perry, Willie Bradley, Saul Perez, Chevell Thomas, Alyssa Brown, “Ceci” Choko Smith, Yessica Angomas, “Nunu” Wallace, Alexa Beltrez, Nediva Green, Attisha Hudson, Imane Khoufaify
John Sullivan, Principal, 2011- 2016
Joel Silverstein, Art Teacher 2003- 2016
Dedicated to the Coalition School for Social Change, 1993-2018.
Coalition was a warm and vibrant High School. This painting was completed in 2015 to capture an impromptu school portrait; students in the hallway walking to class, noting personalities, caught in snatches of conversation, stooping to pick up books, watching other students in the four-minute period between classes. It seeks to depict a particular moment, but also the closeness of the Coalition environment as a community; a place for learning, social maturation and deep connection.
This large work was conceived and executed in three separate canvas panels. Photography was used as a source material, but the bottom row of students actually posed for each other directly on the spot. The original work in site had a small fire box exposed at the center of the painting. Rather than cover it over for this exhibition, it was painstakingly reproduced. The current fire box however is a wooden counterfeit. It is the center of the composition and functions like a large eye watching over the entire painting. Over twenty students worked on this mural, stretching canvas, drawing the figures, painting, mounting or simply aiding in some way. All the students in the Art Crew appear in the mural from left to right.
As the mural seeks to show happy times, there are moments when tragedy must also be noted. Three students passed away between the period of Sept 2014-June 2015 and it was decided that a work of art be commissioned as a memorial. These three students were deeply loved and the artwork was a demonstration that they will not be forgotten. They are shown as portraits on the wall, high above the other pupils as if they are watching. From left to right:
Kendel Richardson, Rosaura Hernandez and Renee Thompson.
As we remember both the good and bad times, let us let us honor all the students, staff and memories of The Coalition School for Social Change across the years. They too, will not be forgotten.
.History Timeline/Student Statement:
History is the Story of all Peoples Woven into an Inexorable Past, Present & Future…
How We Conceive History
This mural represents a project, which took a whole semester to complete. About 20 - 25 students did Historical research relating to a visual history timeline. It is a large picture that demonstrates history as a sequential narrative which begins in pre-history, goes through cave times, the ancient world of Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome, hits a high point in the Italian Renaissance and shows the modern world at its best and most exciting in the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century. Of course history is larger, greater and more complex that this. At the very least, History demonstrates more episodes, subjects and themes. However for the sake of space the mural was divided into three zones or visual images.
Episode I; Pre-History and the Ancient World:
We used the English language and books as a model. The past starts on the left and moves to the right. In other cultures ( for example Japan or Israel) this would not be so. The image on the left is modeled on cave paintings from Lascaux France, 10,000 BC such as lions and bison, which cave men painted directly onto cave walls. The great civilizations begin here: The Pyramids of Egypt 3400 BC, the Discus Thrower of the Greek Olympics, a Spartan helmet, a Greek statue holding a spear, circa 400 BC all lit by the light of ancient times.
Episode II; The Italian Renaissance, 1400-1600 A.D.:
The Italian Renaissance is one of the most important creative and interesting times in the history of the world. Italy boasted the great artistic innovators: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564, Raphael, 1483-1520, Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, Donatello, 1386-1466, Titian, 1488-1576 Tintoretto 1518-1594 and many others. It also created scientists like Galileo, 1564-1642 Political theorists like Machiavelli, 1469-1527, Poets like Dante, 1265-1321 and Petrarch, 1304-1374. This section is based on Raphael’s mammoth painting The School of Athens, 1509 which depicted geniuses and philosophers meeting in ancient Greece, but actually showed great talents and minds meeting in Rome at the time. The three figures in the center are: Michelangelo, creator of the David statue and the Sistine Chapel, Leonardo, creator of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and Mona herself. Mona Lisa will always be the most mysterious woman whoever lived. Who ever showed up in Florence, or later in Venice or in Rome, were in store for the world’s greatest party!
Episode III; The Civil Rights Movement:
During the mid-twentieth Century, African Americans still did not receive the same rights and legal protections as their white counterparts. The Civil Rights Movement began after a long period of “Jim Crow” Laws created after the Civil War, 1861-5. By the 1950’s – 1968, many Black leaders rose to lead their community and the World. The three depicted are Martin Luther King,1929-1968 Malcolm X,1925-1965 and Rosa Parks,1913-2005. The places and objects depicted are the Lincoln Memorial, The Liberty Bell and the bus on which Rosa parks refused to take a back seat. The Civil Rights Movement panel of the mural is conceived as the culmination of the whole painting cycle.
