“I just felt we needed to bring this place alive a little bit,” said Donna Grzybowski, educational leader at the Anna L. Klein School in Guttenberg. “I thought this would be a good way to start, to get the kids involved and also to help them develop some respect for the property.”
She was talking about the new mural that takes up most of a long wall outside the cafeteria in the school. The mural was designed and painted by 13 school students, along with six former students who now attend the high school.
“This was Mrs. Grzybowski’s dream, her vision,” said Art Teacher Glenis Vasquez, who was tasked with making that vision a reality. To make it happen, Vasquez reached out to students in her after-school Art Club.
“Art Club is a club where you basically do art and have fun and Ms. Vasquez takes you to museums and stuff,” said seventh grader Catherin Mella.
“She actually picked and chose certain people to do the mural, so we got called,” said seventh grader Jaylin Duchesne.
“I called out to the kids who were in my extracurricular art club first,” said Vasquez. “And there were a few students who weren’t in art club but they had an inclination towards art, so I called a few of those as well. I asked if any students want to come to school during their summer vacation, and some of them were very happy to help. It was beautiful outside and we were in here, painting.”
Representing the community
The students worked from 9 a.m. till early afternoon for about three weeks. “Basically I had the students come up with ideas,” said Vasquez, who volunteered her time to work on the project over the summer. “What do you think would represent us, our community, our school? What can we put up there?”
“The students came up with the images,” she continued. “The idea of the school, the idea of sports, the idea of nature, taking care of the Earth – all of that came from them. We had them sketch them on regular sheets of paper and then we projected the on the wall.”
“I helped trace and I colored the grass,” said seventh grader Evelynne Mitchell. “I thought it came out really good. It came out different from what I expected. I thought the colors would be a little bit different. And there’s a lot more here than I thought.”
Originally Vasquez planned to paint only a small section between two cafeteria doors, but when the janitorial staff prepped the entire long hallway she figured, Why not?
“It makes you feel happy when you walk down the hall.” –Michelle Rosenberg
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“They came up with the idea of the center area,” said Vasquez. “And then when we came and put it on the wall, the space was much bigger. So then I said, ‘All right, while we’re here, what else should we do? Come up with other ideas to put on either side.’ And they sketched them up, on the spot, and we projected it on the wall. It was instantaneous.”
To the left is a nature scene with plants and animals. To the right is an urban landscape depicting the school topped by a rainbow.
Taking over the school
Once the last remaining white spaces are filled in, it will be time to expand the project.
“The next step of my ‘vision’ is to start doing this throughout the building,” said Grzybowski. “In the hallways, the stairwells. I was going to ask the second and third floors for some ideas for a theme, and probably do it on a smaller scale. I think we got carried away with the canvas here, but Ms. Vasquez covered the whole thing. In the stairwells we’d like to maybe put some images of students, to make it look like they’re walking up and down the stairs. It brightens it up.”
She is hoping to get started on phase two in the springtime.
“It makes the school look personal,” said School Superintendent Michelle Rosenberg. “It makes you feel happy when you walk down the hall. Kids don’t take pride in their school unless they have a vested interest in it. So now if we’re doing this in all the hallways they’ll be able to all take part in it.”
You can expect some of the art club members to participate in the future projects. “I like drawing,” said Jaylin Duschesne enthusiastically. “Like Mickey Mouse.”
Her classmate Evelynne Mitchell enjoys drawing as well, but “I’m more into the creepy type of artwork,” she said. “Other people would draw a city or a nice tree, I look for more in the gory and scary stuff.”
“We’re opposites,” said Duschesne.
“But best friends,” added Mitchell.
“We’re soul sisters,” Duschesne concluded.
United in art.
The Anna L. Klein students who participated in creating the mural were Fiona Bezhani (grade 6), Ozara Dalgo (7), Andy Dong (8), Jaylin Duchesne (7), Catherin Mella (7), Evelynne Mitchell (7), Aylin Molina (7), Enrique Moreno (6), Deep Patel (6), Dhrumil Patel (7), Disha Patel (7), Leslie Rodriguez (7), and Anthony Sepulveda (6).
Also contributing were high school students and Anna L. Klein alumni Desiree Chavez, Kevin Chicas, Vladimir de la Cruz, Anne Gao, Karel Gonzalez, and Paul Sepulveda.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.