Feb 12, 2012 | 03:39
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Jun 30, 2009
Children leave legacy, thanks to famed muralist, UCLA students
Scott C. Smith’s students at UCLA Lab School have proven that age is no standard by which to judge an artist's merit.Each year, the graduating sixth grade class gives a gift to the school. This year, students, parents and teachers decided that their gift would be the creation of a mural that embodies the spirit and message of the school.
So earlier this year, Smith’s sixth grade class, working with world-renowned muralist Judith Baca, a professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, took up their paintbrushes to create a mural on campus that captures the vibrant and stimulating atmosphere generated by students and teachers at the school.
Photos by Emilia Barrosse.
In tandem with UCLA students and Baca, who was the creator of a world-famous mural known as “The Great Wall of Los Angeles,” Smith’s class took the project on.
“We contacted [Baca] to see if there was any possibility of a project to do,” said Smith, “And since she had previously worked at [UCLA Lab School], she knew about it. It was also a great opportunity for UCLA students. So she came with her students.”
“[Judy Baca] saw our excitement about the project. So we went for it,” said Carlos Rogel, who has been studying with her at UCLA since 2006.
Smith recalls the first day Baca came to the school to brainstorm ideas for the theme and placement of the mural.
“We walked around and looked at different spots," Smith said. "She came to that spot, and she was like, ‘This is where it’s going to be.’”
On the first day of painting, Rogel recalled, some of the students "were nervous because they had never painted before. So, watching them plunge into the activity was very fulfilling."
Baca played a key role in the mural-making. “She’s very approachable and easy-going, and was enthusiastic to be here,” Smith said. “What’s special about her is she works with communities, with children in creating murals where it’s a collaborative process.”
Sixth graders at the UCLA Lab School execute hip-hop moves in the mural they helped create.
“One of the special things about the sixth grade program here,” said Smith, “is that the kids do a lot of dance … and since dance is a universal human expression, we wanted that.”
But the timing was just serendipity. “We just invited the muralists to come, and it happened to be on a day that the kids were dancing, and it was just very organic," Smith said. And the UCLA students loved the theme. "It was something that was real and meaningful to them because hip hop is the youth culture – that is what they do.”
The mural itself is a triumph of teamwork and creative inspiration. Pictures of dance throughout history are painted over a dark blue sky filled with iridescent stars, planets and constellations.
A red fire burns in the middle of a circle of Native Americans performing a cultural dance, followed by a young black couple swing-dancing in the 1920s next to James Brown, in a different frame, completing his signature moves.
The images of the students themselves, executing new-wave, hip-hop moves in a circle, follow prominently. Along the perimeter of the mural are six central images the sixth graduers created to symbolize their own dreams and wishes for the future: a healthy environment; sportsmanship; fulfilled dreams; physical, social, mental and emotional health; friendship; and the joy in learning.
“As they move out into the world,” explained Smith, “they are leaving hope for the future students that will be here.”
