WEBVTT

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Okay, I'm rolling. Everything seems cool. Ready? Reverse the battery. That old cameraman

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drill. It's rolling once again. Okay. Say when. Okay. Okay. December 11th, Olga describing

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Londale mural. Did you hear the snap on the mic? That's very good. Let's do it again.

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You better do it once again. Really good. December 11th, Olga describing Londale mural.

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Okay, just a minute. Let me get us. Now you're going to talk to Susan to Ben Schiemenmeld.

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What I want to tell you is just some of the associations, the thoughts that come to me

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when I look at it. And the first thing that strikes me just looking at it, for example,

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is my vision gets drawn to the center figure, which is that of a man, but he looks more like

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an Indian. Just the features being angular and strong. That's the other thing that hits

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me is that it's a very strong, you get a sense of strength in that face, a sense of dignity.

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I'm not sure if that's the right word, but just the strength and that it's not a, it's an open face.

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There are profiles on the side which make me think that this is a person that was just,

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has been looking at different directions, but right now in an open manner,

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is drawing the viewer to the center. And in this particular mural,

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the things that come to mind are just the different symbols. In general, I would say the theme

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of what it's trying to say or communicate to those that see it is one, a sense of openness,

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two, a sense of unity, and third, a sense of purpose. And the goal being that somehow

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through education, which then again as this mural opens up and the lines of the painting sort of

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give it that sense of openness, it forces you to look at the other things. For example,

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over there you see the figures of someone who's graduating. The sign that says clearly says

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university, so it's suggesting again through this process of education you will then reach a center

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which is profile as a pyramid. As the top of the stairs you reach success or somehow

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that's I think what it's trying to convey. I find interesting that along with some old symbols of

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success, of glory, which is the pyramid for Mexicans like myself, you have some other

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structures that suggest the possibilities of success in this period of time, in this place,

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in this new home, which would be Chicago. So you see the structures in the background of familiar

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buildings in Chicago like the Marina City, I think that's the Hancock, and other buildings in

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downtown area. And of course I find that amusing that they include the Longdale Bank of course.

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All structures that again are symbol of home but not only of a successful kind of place, of a

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good strong kind of place as opposed to you know anything else. The other thing that's interesting

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is and which suggests to me the sense of openness together as a community we will succeed.

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The is the figure of the Statue of Liberty which to everybody every immigrant knows that what it

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means is that you're welcome. This is the the figure that welcomes you into this place which

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you try to make your home. And another interesting feature again the super imposition of

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symbols forces you to think about a past and also at the present time,

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or the present time simultaneously.

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What I found curious is it's how

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by painting it with the sort of yellow rays emanating from the

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the Statue of Liberty it connects it with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe which if you

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would look at one again you will see that these rays of yellow coming out which again give it a

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sense of that aura, the aura of goodness, of strength, of power,

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but also of

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how could I put it

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something that is

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good as opposed to something that may be threatening and so that it makes

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the Statue of Liberty by sort of juxtaposing in your mind those those images

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even more welcoming than you would otherwise see it.

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I think what I see and I find moving is the progression. I almost feel that part of what's

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happening within this mural is something that has happened in my own life. I believe those themes.

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I grew up with the themes that if you work hard enough and you studied you could succeed and I

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think part of my own lifetime that by following that unspoken unwritten sort of message

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and proceeding and making a choice

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through education indeed I have reached quote heights that I never thought would be possible

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at least that my parents didn't think were possible in their lifetime.

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So it's

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this is I guess mural communicates that that message to those who see it.

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Work hard enough, work together again the theme of togetherness is there

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which in other murals you won't find. I think the earlier ones you would find a theme of

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we're not accepted, we're oppressed, maybe we could work together. This states clearly we can.

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You see other different people with different color skins and

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being together and looking towards the future which by all indications is supposed to be successful.

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And if you could kind of point toward it the way you were again as if you were describing it to us.

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I guess the other thing I would like to say about it is that the way

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it also ties

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or brings about a sense of community and a sense of

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this being home is again through the juxtaposition of old and new images

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with even the human figures

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particularly ones on the left looking like modern Hispanics here in Chicago

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but that central figure more reminiscent of a past again very reminiscent of an Indian figure

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the pose

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the pyramid in the middle again it's it's it speaks to a glorious past and

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probably a glorious future. This is really a very optimistic mural I would say.

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It has less of that sense of conflict that some of the other ones have.

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This one for sure says we are working together and we will be successful together

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through education and openness.

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And those are kind of the themes that I believed and I followed

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and indeed have resulted in success in my own life.

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And those are the themes that I hope the younger generation believe

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and use in setting their own goals.

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Basically that's we're just that cute we ran out of film.

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That was wonderful. We'll try to preserve because this is like another version of the

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the island you know sort of the place where we want to be at

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Yeah.

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As opposed to the like something like si se puede or the one over by which is full of conflict

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that the sense of of in talks more about all the negative things that people experience as

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as the new kids on the block I suppose.

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Because this happens to everybody.

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You gotta go there.

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All right.

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Yeah.

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If something poppy.

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The yours.

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The.

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Sight.

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Okay.

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Just tell me a little bit.

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Tell me about.

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I tell you what let's start you back farther.

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Then you can walk to it.

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But kind of come this way.

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Yeah me too.

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Yeah there you go.

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Because then now then you can turn around go back and talk about it.

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Okay.

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I tell you what yeah now go ahead.

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Okay so just can you start telling me a story about this mural.

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Well I can tell you how I got started.

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What happened was I was introduced to Dr.

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Mike Rose by one of the teachers Francisco Mendoza who comes here.

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And he introduced me to her he told me about how she had worked on the school and how she helped

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the students develop the artwork and to paint a lot more murals.

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So we met we talked about art we talked about a lot of other things

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and that's how we started to build this mural.

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She asked me if I wanted to work on it and I said sure.

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And what happened was we were all thinking about how can we make this mural

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powerful how can it bring something pleasant to everyone in the office because the office was

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pretty hectic.

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And we decided to make it a scene from Paris which it is.

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It was a scene from Paris and we talked about how come we wanted to make it.

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How everything had to be structured how everything had to be manmade.

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I had a lot of a lot of trouble with it because I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted this to look.

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If I wanted a fountain if I wanted a round or square if I want to just place it there.

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And it took a while to develop everything and find out how we wanted everything to come by.

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I started working on it outside it was pretty hot weather like 90 degrees close to 100 degrees.

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And we would just prime it.

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So it's kind of interesting how this is all grass and if you look real closely

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right around here you can see that this is real grass because while I was painting outside on the

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grass the grass got stuck to it.

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So some of it has a lot of grass and by the grass that's when I started to pick it up and make it

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into grass because I wasn't sure what I wanted this to be.

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And it took me a long time to make this grass the way it looks because at first it looked

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watery and so on.

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Dr. Michael started liking it and we started building things up.

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We added the flowers in last.

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Actually I would go outside and look at the flowers and that's how we decided to make the

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flowers look the way they are now.

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And it took a while to also think of the fencing right here.

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It looked pretty plain and what happened was the mirror was the circle right there was just

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coming out.

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So we decided to put a fencing around it and hopefully it'll land it down.

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And that's what it did that's exactly what happened.

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Another thing is I had a dream about these swans so I wasn't sure what I was going to put

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there.

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When I was sleeping I had a dream of some swans and a pond and a fountain just the way it is.

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So when I went back to school, when I went back to work the next day, I painted in the swans.

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And that's how they started building up and I put a lot of gold around them and making them very

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bright because that's what I enjoyed the most.

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I enjoyed the swans the most and that's what I wanted to show people.

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The swans to me are a symbol of calmness and beauty and things like that.

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How I imagine?

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To me when I was painting it I did walk through it.

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It was I was actually there.

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I would come in through here.

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I wanted to make enter the people into it.

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That's why I made that road right there so people can walk inside and wonder what it's like to be

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in there because everything else is so pleasant.

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Everything else is so calm that you want to see what's beyond that point.

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And that's what it all draws you in there.

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You know so I would walk around here and look at the swans look at the fountain feel real calm.

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Probably sit on the grass.

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If you want to look at the flowers and take pictures that's that's what I kept on imagining

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while I was painting the mural and that's what I wanted the viewer to feel.

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I wanted them let them feel around and go around and walk around there and lord knows what's beyond

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that and it was up to the the viewer to imagine what else you could see.

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The gates are also a symbol of luxury you know luxury.

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People would see it and

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the

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center describes it.

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Cooper mural.

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Um the the gate what happened was I wanted to make the person feel like if it was a luxury place

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I wanted to make it feel when you enter this you feel like if you're going to go into some

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type of paradise like if you're going to go into some place so rich that you can just lie down and

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have a great time on the grass or just have a picnic and that's that's what they symbolize.

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I would make them glow to show the richness of them.

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It all it all worked out pretty much the way I wanted it to work out.

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I wanted people to feel comfortable in the office.

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I wanted people to actually want to come into this office and not argue and not look at the

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students really mean or feel the paper shuffling.

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I wanted them to come inside for the first time you know the first workday

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and they'd look at it and they'd feel they'd feel pleasant inside and that's exactly what happened.

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I started teachers started speaking with me they started telling me how how well made it was how

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they felt about it and how it made them feel and that's exactly what I wanted that's what happened.

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So it was it was important to me to establish that to let the viewer the teachers and everyone

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feel that and that's what they felt.

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Can you describe the first time you came to Cooper and how you sort of decided to come here and try and paint?

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Well I saw all the murals so I saw the murals around Cooper.

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It was fascinating just the artwork itself was fantastic and it was a privilege to me to

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actually be able to work here.

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When I came here it wasn't as I expected because I didn't I didn't expect so many murals.

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I didn't expect so much art so I wasn't I wasn't really motivated but once I came here I got so

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motivated I came up with all these ideas and the teacher is helping me and the students are always

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complimenting or just telling you what they think so I gathered all the ideas together.

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Once I gathered them that's this is what I came up with I had a lot of sketches

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and I picked this one the students helped me the teachers helped me and it was just what I wanted.

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Were there some students who helped you paint on this and if so what did you do?

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There really weren't but there were two girls who were interested in seeing me paint

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and I like for people to to paint and be creative I like to see that so they I have at least five or

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six layers of paint on this different paints they put the first layer was like a wash it's just a

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regular wash of acrylic and they just touched it up around here and I just let them feel the brush

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and see what it was like and some of them were were muralists too and they just touched it up

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and on top of that I just went over the whole thing on my own my best friend Tina also helped

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me with these because I had a deadline to meet and I wanted her to feel the two to to be a part

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of it because it's I think it's special to be a part of this mural you feel it you actually feel

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you actually feel like if you're there and I wanted I wanted someone to share that with me

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so I chose her so it's pretty good. What things have people said to you now that the mural is hung

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and finished? They thanked me for it they tell me it's exactly what they thought it would be

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they tell me it makes the office a lot more different a lot more happy cheerful people

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they compliment me on it they don't believe that I did it um a lot of people just come up to me

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and say I went to Cooper and I saw mural then I had your name on it and that's just pretty much

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what they say.

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This thing you must be hearing this.

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Yeah I'm hearing that.

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You're just starting over.

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Yeah but that especially.

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That's really.

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How much do we have left?

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Not much. What have we not talked about in terms of the mural?

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You know what I wouldn't mind um well we've pretty much covered the office story we kind of backed into it but um

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Yeah I think it's better that way.

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Well the first time I entered it was very busy there were students

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sitting down on a number of chairs that were around the teachers were running in and out and um

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secretaries were busy typing or answering phone calls it was hectic when I went to ask for uh

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Francisco Mendoza or when I would talk to someone they were they were pretty busy

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so I felt uncomfortable I felt like oh no I'm imposing they're gonna think what is she doing

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here and things like that that's the kind of that's the thought that I had that's what that's what

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made me think but uh towards now when I came back right now I was cheerful everyone was happy it was

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more calm I'm not saying that maybe the mural did it but it was it was different because they

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were pretty loud before.