Returning to What's Sacred...

Greetings fellow Muralistics followers, once again from Andreyna. Well, I just thought I would give you a little update on what has gone on, although it may be a little overdue. So not too long ago, The Muralistics, along with some of the students from the Green Academy, were pleased to have a very interesting guest speaker by the name of Ray Leon. He is a local Latino enviromentalist, originally from Michoacan  Mexico, and like our other guest speakers from the past, he tried to share with us what sustainability meant to him. At the beginning of the talk he had us all give him different words on how we would describe sustainability ourselves and then shortly after gave us his perspective. He related it back to culture by explaining to us that culture is one of the things that would stick around as long as we strengthened it. He also brought up the topic of something being sacred and mentioned that if something is sacred, it is normally sustained simply out of respect. I took them as its related to traditions and as long as you make it a tradition to live a sustainable lifestyle, it will continue to be that way for your future generations. It goes with the statement he made about how people have the power and you can make it happen.  

Andreyna C. 
p.s. this is a picture of me carrying our three mural designs to present to Cameron Moors, the building owner, so that we can find out which of our three murals we will get to paint.

Design. Sustainability. Nerves of Steel. Anticipation.

Well, well, well it’s been a while since the Muralistics have updated you all on what’s going on and I am honored to do so. On the first of February we were delighted to have our wonderful guest speaker, Mary Aldern, inform us on lots about the nature that surrounds us in the valley. She works in the San Joaquin River Parkway & Conservation Trust where she helps to conserve the land and rivers, educate and recreate the outdoors (all here in the San Joaquin Valley). She spoke a lot on sustainability. Let me remind you guys what sustainability is, it is the ability to endure. So when Aldern spoke she spoke of humans achieving sustainability by finding a better more efficient way of living in our natural support system, the biosphere. So keeping our air and water clean and our soil healthy is another way we can achieve sustainability and keep our planet happy.

A few days later (2/3/11) was the first Thursday of the month, and this Thursday was a special one. A few of us went on quite the adventure. ARTHOP!  This is the time where us kids advertise ourselves. We haven’t done it in a while so when we begin we get a little shaky and our hearts beat real fast and we are at a lost of words, but we need to get the word out about this blog and that huge mural were doing. So we take in a big gulp of air and walk up to the art viewers and start handing out our fliers. Most people are nice to us but every once in a while there will be a grumpy soul that we encounter. It’ really fun after a while when you get into it, but personally my favorite part is seeing all of the local artists exhibit their work. It’s so interesting and amazing how much talent we have here in Fresno.

Now lets get down to business, here on this blog we haven’t talked much about this mural so you're all probably wondering what’s up with it. Currently we are designing three different murals, and of the three we will have our wall owner decide which one he believes will look best on the wall. We are just about wrapping it up on all three so it’s pretty exciting because once we get one of these idea approved we get to PAAAINT!

- Paris  Marie Jackson

Falling in Love with Fresno

A couple of weeks ago we had a speaker come talk to us about downtown revitalization named Craig Scharton.

In his vision, he wants to make downtown Fresno the hot spot of all the cities in the valley. He is helping us out because we are working on our mural project, which involves the history of Fresno, architecture, and revitalization. Personally, I would love to see it get more popular and if we increase the night life here a lot more people would come.  Craig wants to put more night clubs and restaurants in downtown Fresno. If he succeeds at this more people would stay here in Fresno instead of leaving. In doing so, once there are more people here, we could conserve what we have, instead of moving to places and taking over.  We could be eco friendly and make downtown bigger. I would love to see that. Another thing that Craig wants is to, basically, make you fall in love with downtown Fresno; always have something nice around every corner of the city.  I love it already, as it is, because of the bigger buildings, more space, and because there is more activity going on there than anywhere else. Craig also said something about cleaning up the graffiti here in Fresno because it makes it look "dangerous". Personally, I think it gives it character and it shows people that visit that aren’t from here, that we have a lot of artists and an artistic culture here in Fresno. Anyway, I support what Craig Scharton does and what he wants to do and I think it would be for the better.

                                                                                                             -Bruno Gonzalez

More to Architecture and Design than meets the eye...

Kiel Famellos-Schmidt, the Muralistic’s latest guest speaker, came to Edison High to speak about his profession and how it relates to revitalization. He explained to us what architecture is and how it works. He went through the process that he goes through before an actual building is built. One of the steps in his process caught my attention. Before his visitation at Edison High I assumed things about architecture and didn’t really think much about the process. He went into detail about how he works with geographers and communities to make sure that the building is built to survive the conditions it is around, and for it to benefit the community around it. Another thing Kiel talked about was a mobile work station, which is a small shed like station that people with special skills such as skills used in construction could go to, to find work and have shelter instead of standing in parking lots when it is raining or standing in the blistering sun. These stations are made for communities and benefit communities by providing work for those who are unemployed and basically making an office for people to go to if they are in need of people skilled in certain areas. After Kiel’s presentation I felt more positive about me wanting to become an architect. I think we all learned a great deal from his presentation. Erik

Freezing for arts sake...

So on the Muralistics' latest endeavor for research on our mural, we embarked on a walking tour of downtown Fresno, to become better acquainted with our lovely town, and soon to be cultural arts mecca. We started off our day at the Iron Bird Cafe, from there, equipped with our umbrellas and beanies we walked around the cafe and surrounding buildings learning about the history behind the murals in that area as well as the new architecture. We later went and visited the site of our mural, and discovered a dilemma with painted brick that we will soon be faced with.Then, headed to Arte Americas and met  Nancy Marquez, who gave us a really fascinating tour of the place, along with a very informational history lesson on the district we will be painting our mural in. She told us how downtown was once a lively and fun place were people went for all sorts of entertainment. Fascinated, we continued to tour the surrounding area, talking about its history and the art. After a much needed warm tea break we visited the old crumbling cultural arts mural, and saw how it served as a metaphor for the crumbling cultural arts district. Finally, we had some relief from the elements and took shelter to talk about our day and how it was a very fulfilling trip. Many of us had known little to none about our hometowns downtown and how it once thrived. We were all inspired to bring back the roar that downtown Fresno once hailed. Though the weather for the day was not ideal, the experience was more than we could have anticipated.  Micheal

A Word from Andreyna

Hey everyone, so this is Andreyna with the first actual blog by one of the muralistics about what's going on ! How exciting right ? Well sort of, I can start off by saying that today's guest speakers which included Simran Sethi and muralist Dave Lowenstein were both really interesting individuals. They were both very lively and seemed really passionate about what they did which made it all that much more fun. We listened to Simran talk about what she does and how she is way behind sustainability in whatever way people want to apply it. She explained what it meant to her and how she was thrilled to hear about our project and how we are applying sustainability in our own way. Muralist Dave Lowenstein gave us some tips on making our mural sustainable and shared some cool stories of some of his past projects. Although towards the end they repeatedly got cut off so we could hear nothing of what they were saying, they were some really cool speakers. As for Art hop tonight, oh what a night ! We hadn't been out there handing out flyers and info to all of these unfamiliar faces in a quite a while so most of us were nervous wrecks when handing out the blog flyers! After a while we were starting to get back into it so we were all ready to drive to the next art hop place until tragedy struck, and by this I mean Sam got a flat tire! What a fantastic way to end the evening I thought, except for I wasn't, BUT, we ended up making it a dandy old time. We came to the conclusion that it was meant to happen because downtown obviously wanted us to spend more time in it and take in our surroundings if we wanted to work on revitalizing it. At least we got some dance moves down from a couple of the muralistics and shared some really interesting stories that we otherwise would not have. We did have a total of an hour and a half to burn anyway, oh well, great day in the land of the muralistics I think..

The Official Welcome Wagon

Greetings to all.  We have a couple of paintbrushes in the fire this year, so to speak, but this blog will be focused on the mural we will be designing and creating in Downtown Fresno this year.  Yes, it's true, this mural is going to be created with all environmentally derived paints, but you'll have to tune in to see the design of the mural unfold from an inspirational source that dates back to a time when the world was full of propaganda posters. We are also partnering with  the youth at Edison High Schools Green Academy.  They will be putting on a huge festival at the completion of the Mural.  The Festival will feature local environmental organizations, artists, musicians, poets and, of course, our finished mural.  Along the way we will have visitors, from near and far, speaking about the importance of downtown revitalization, local environmental issues, and the arts. Not only will you get to follow us on this journey through the minds of the different Muralistics featured each month, but you will also get the added bonus of being educated about our community as you go.  So, stay tuned, stay informed and most of all stay awhile.