At least 200 kids from Malibu Middle and High schools were involved in the project
By Barbara Burke
Special to The Malibu Times
Students, faculty members, and visitors were able to enjoy some new scenery at Malibu High School — a mural wrapping around a storage/utility campus building, painted by students from the high school and Malibu Middle School.
“We’ve worked on the mural for one week and lots of kids contributed to it by helping to paint,” said muralist Marcel “Sel” Blanco on Oct. 23 as he stepped back from the large art project and admired the artistic creation depicting azure blue waves crashing against a beach and a stunningly yellow sun with white puffy clouds calmly floating above. A lifeguard tower is juxtaposed against the cliffs and the bright and cheerful scene adds both beauty and joy to the lawn where students gather. On the horizon behind, the Santa Monica Mountains embrace the new mural. The other side of the mural, which wraps around all four sides of the small building, highlights Pt. Dume.
“Some kids love to be creative and thoroughly enjoy using the brush and paint,” Cel said, noting his murals can be found @sel_dog and that he has murals displayed in London, DTLA, Santa Monica, and Long Beach but that he especially enjoys helping create murals on school campuses.
“Stan Nunez is assisting me here in Malibu’s school and I’ve helped to create murals on about 10 school campuses,” Cel said. “In some schools there is no art program so doing the murals is especially important. Without art programs, the schools are not reaching about one-third of the school population of kids who want to explore the arts.”
Longtime Malibu art teacher Tom Hacker designed the mural.
“I wanted to create something that fits with the landscape and the mountains beyond,” Hacker said.
“The mural is something permanent that the students can enjoy and remember, and then again — there’s the large empty gray wall space across the lawn that encases the elevator tower!” Hacker smiled at the thought that the other structure could also provide a canvas for a mural in the future.
Parent-led organizations Arts Angels and the Shark Fund assisted in paying for and providing the materials and arranging the project which is part of Red Ribbon Week, a nationwide initiative held at high schools that seeks to help middle and high school students avoid becoming involved in drugs and instead choose to be kind to their minds and find their natural high.
“It was incredible to see the transformation when the kids got involved and grabbed a paint brush!” said Greg Schellenberg, who’s in his first year as Malibu Middle School’s principal. “A dull old stone brick building just popped with color.”
Beaming at the beautiful mural, Jo Drummond, Arts Angels president, commented, “At least 200 kids from Malibu Middle and High schools were involved in the project.”
Daniela Torres-Mattus, director of education for Beautify Earth, a nonprofit organization that helps to create murals on school campuses, helped to coordinate the project.
“When students grab a brush and create, it inspires them to know that they can change their environment,” Torres-Mattus said. “We take murals to kids in schools that need some love — for every mural a school pays for, we provide a school in disadvantaged neighborhoods a free mural. A school in Inglewood will benefit from the Malibu mural.”
With the murals, she noted, “one sees a small change on a drab surface, but all it takes to help someone be happy is color and art. I do this because it changes lives — there’s nothing that art can’t heal.”
World Kindness Week is also from November 13-16.
