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December 11th, Olga describing Londale mural.
Did you hear the snap on the mic? That's very good.
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Really good.
December 11th, Olga describing Londale mural.
Okay, just a minute.
Let me get us.
Now you're going to talk to Susan to Ben Schiemenmeld.
What I want to tell you is just some of the associations, the thoughts that come to me when I look at it.
And the first thing that strikes me just looking at it, for example, is my vision gets drawn to the center figure, which is that of a man, but he looks more like an Indian.
Just the features being angular and strong.
That's the other thing that hits me is that it's a very strong, you get a sense of strength in that face, a sense of dignity.
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.
There are profiles on the side which make me think that this is a person that was just, has been looking at different directions, but right now in an open manner, is drawing the viewer to the center.
And in this particular mural, the things that come to mind are just the different symbols.
In general, I would say the theme of what it's trying to say or communicate to those that see it is one, a sense of openness, two, a sense of unity, and third, a sense of purpose.
And the goal being that somehow through education, which then again as this mural opens up and the lines of the painting sort of give it that sense of openness, it forces you to look at the other things.
For example, over there you see the figures of someone who's graduating.
The sign that says clearly says university, so it's suggesting again through this process of education you will then reach a center which is profile as a pyramid.
As the top of the stairs you reach success or somehow that's I think what it's trying to convey.
I find interesting that along with some old symbols of success, of glory, which is the pyramid for Mexicans like myself, you have some other structures that suggest the possibilities of success in this period of time, in this place, in this new home, which would be Chicago.
So you see the structures in the background of familiar buildings in Chicago like the Marina City, I think that's the Hancock, and other buildings in downtown area.
And of course I find that amusing that they include the Longdale Bank of course.
All structures that again are symbol of home but not only of a successful kind of place, of a good strong kind of place as opposed to you know anything else.
The other thing that's interesting is and which suggests to me the sense of openness together as a community we will succeed.
The is the figure of the Statue of Liberty which to everybody every immigrant knows that what it means is that you're welcome.
This is the the figure that welcomes you into this place which you try to make your home.
And another interesting feature again the super imposition of symbols forces you to think about a past and also at the present time, or the present time simultaneously.
What I found curious is it's how by painting it with the sort of yellow rays emanating from the the Statue of Liberty it connects it with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe which if you would look at one again you will see that these rays of yellow coming out which again give it a sense of that aura, the aura of goodness, of strength, of power, but also of how could I put it something that is good as opposed to something that may be threatening and so that it makes the Statue of Liberty by sort of juxtaposing in your mind those those images even more welcoming than you would otherwise see it.
I think what I see and I find moving is the progression.
I almost feel that part of what's happening within this mural is something that has happened in my own life.
I believe those themes.
I grew up with the themes that if you work hard enough and you studied you could succeed and I think part of my own lifetime that by following that unspoken unwritten sort of message and proceeding and making a choice through education indeed I have reached quote heights that I never thought would be possible at least that my parents didn't think were possible in their lifetime.
So it's this is I guess mural communicates that that message to those who see it.
Work hard enough, work together again the theme of togetherness is there which in other murals you won't find.
I think the earlier ones you would find a theme of we're not accepted, we're oppressed, maybe we could work together.
This states clearly we can.
You see other different people with different color skins and being together and looking towards the future which by all indications is supposed to be successful.
And if you could kind of point toward it the way you were again as if you were describing it to us.
I guess the other thing I would like to say about it is that the way it also ties or brings about a sense of community and a sense of this being home is again through the juxtaposition of old and new images with even the human figures particularly ones on the left looking like modern Hispanics here in Chicago but that central figure more reminiscent of a past again very reminiscent of an Indian figure the pose the pyramid in the middle again it's it's it speaks to a glorious past and probably a glorious future.
This is really a very optimistic mural I would say.
It has less of that sense of conflict that some of the other ones have.
This one for sure says we are working together and we will be successful together through education and openness.
And those are kind of the themes that I believed and I followed and indeed have resulted in success in my own life.
And those are the themes that I hope the younger generation believe and use in setting their own goals.
Basically that's we're just that cute we ran out of film.
That was wonderful.
We'll try to preserve because this is like another version of the the island you know sort of the place where we want to be at Yeah.
As opposed to the like something like si se puede or the one over by which is full of conflict that the sense of of in talks more about all the negative things that people experience as as the new kids on the block I suppose.
Because this happens to everybody.
You gotta go there.
All right.
Yeah.
If something poppy.
The yours.
The.
Sight.
Okay.
Just tell me a little bit.
Tell me about.
I tell you what let's start you back farther.
Then you can walk to it.
But kind of come this way.
Yeah me too.
Yeah there you go.
Because then now then you can turn around go back and talk about it.
Okay.
I tell you what yeah now go ahead.
Okay so just can you start telling me a story about this mural.
Well I can tell you how I got started.
What happened was I was introduced to Dr.
Mike Rose by one of the teachers Francisco Mendoza who comes here.
And he introduced me to her he told me about how she had worked on the school and how she helped the students develop the artwork and to paint a lot more murals.
So we met we talked about art we talked about a lot of other things and that's how we started to build this mural.
She asked me if I wanted to work on it and I said sure.
And what happened was we were all thinking about how can we make this mural powerful how can it bring something pleasant to everyone in the office because the office was pretty hectic.
And we decided to make it a scene from Paris which it is.
It was a scene from Paris and we talked about how come we wanted to make it.
How everything had to be structured how everything had to be manmade.
I had a lot of a lot of trouble with it because I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted this to look.
If I wanted a fountain if I wanted a round or square if I want to just place it there.
And it took a while to develop everything and find out how we wanted everything to come by.
I started working on it outside it was pretty hot weather like 90 degrees close to 100 degrees.
And we would just prime it.
So it's kind of interesting how this is all grass and if you look real closely right around here you can see that this is real grass because while I was painting outside on the grass the grass got stuck to it.
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 into grass because I wasn't sure what I wanted this to be.
And it took me a long time to make this grass the way it looks because at first it looked watery and so on.
Dr.
Michael started liking it and we started building things up.
We added the flowers in last.
Actually I would go outside and look at the flowers and that's how we decided to make the flowers look the way they are now.
And it took a while to also think of the fencing right here.
It looked pretty plain and what happened was the mirror was the circle right there was just coming out.
So we decided to put a fencing around it and hopefully it'll land it down.
And that's what it did that's exactly what happened.
Another thing is I had a dream about these swans so I wasn't sure what I was going to put there.
When I was sleeping I had a dream of some swans and a pond and a fountain just the way it is.
So when I went back to school, when I went back to work the next day, I painted in the swans.
And that's how they started building up and I put a lot of gold around them and making them very bright because that's what I enjoyed the most.
I enjoyed the swans the most and that's what I wanted to show people.
The swans to me are a symbol of calmness and beauty and things like that.
How I imagine? To me when I was painting it I did walk through it.
It was I was actually there.
I would come in through here.
I wanted to make enter the people into it.
That's why I made that road right there so people can walk inside and wonder what it's like to be in there because everything else is so pleasant.
Everything else is so calm that you want to see what's beyond that point.
And that's what it all draws you in there.
You know so I would walk around here and look at the swans look at the fountain feel real calm.
Probably sit on the grass.
If you want to look at the flowers and take pictures that's that's what I kept on imagining while I was painting the mural and that's what I wanted the viewer to feel.
I wanted them let them feel around and go around and walk around there and lord knows what's beyond that and it was up to the the viewer to imagine what else you could see.
The gates are also a symbol of luxury you know luxury.
People would see it and the center describes it.
Cooper mural.
Um the the gate what happened was I wanted to make the person feel like if it was a luxury place I wanted to make it feel when you enter this you feel like if you're going to go into some type of paradise like if you're going to go into some place so rich that you can just lie down and have a great time on the grass or just have a picnic and that's that's what they symbolize.
I would make them glow to show the richness of them.
It all it all worked out pretty much the way I wanted it to work out.
I wanted people to feel comfortable in the office.
I wanted people to actually want to come into this office and not argue and not look at the students really mean or feel the paper shuffling.
I wanted them to come inside for the first time you know the first workday and they'd look at it and they'd feel they'd feel pleasant inside and that's exactly what happened.
I started teachers started speaking with me they started telling me how how well made it was how they felt about it and how it made them feel and that's exactly what I wanted that's what happened.
So it was it was important to me to establish that to let the viewer the teachers and everyone feel that and that's what they felt.
Can you describe the first time you came to Cooper and how you sort of decided to come here and try and paint? Well I saw all the murals so I saw the murals around Cooper.
It was fascinating just the artwork itself was fantastic and it was a privilege to me to actually be able to work here.
When I came here it wasn't as I expected because I didn't I didn't expect so many murals.
I didn't expect so much art so I wasn't I wasn't really motivated but once I came here I got so motivated I came up with all these ideas and the teacher is helping me and the students are always complimenting or just telling you what they think so I gathered all the ideas together.
Once I gathered them that's this is what I came up with I had a lot of sketches and I picked this one the students helped me the teachers helped me and it was just what I wanted.
Were there some students who helped you paint on this and if so what did you do? There really weren't but there were two girls who were interested in seeing me paint and I like for people to to paint and be creative I like to see that so they I have at least five or six layers of paint on this different paints they put the first layer was like a wash it's just a regular wash of acrylic and they just touched it up around here and I just let them feel the brush and see what it was like and some of them were were muralists too and they just touched it up and on top of that I just went over the whole thing on my own my best friend Tina also helped me with these because I had a deadline to meet and I wanted her to feel the two to to be a part of it because it's I think it's special to be a part of this mural you feel it you actually feel you actually feel like if you're there and I wanted I wanted someone to share that with me so I chose her so it's pretty good.
What things have people said to you now that the mural is hung and finished? They thanked me for it they tell me it's exactly what they thought it would be they tell me it makes the office a lot more different a lot more happy cheerful people they compliment me on it they don't believe that I did it um a lot of people just come up to me and say I went to Cooper and I saw mural then I had your name on it and that's just pretty much what they say.
This thing you must be hearing this.
Yeah I'm hearing that.
You're just starting over.
Yeah but that especially.
That's really.
How much do we have left? Not much.
What have we not talked about in terms of the mural? 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 Yeah I think it's better that way.
Well the first time I entered it was very busy there were students sitting down on a number of chairs that were around the teachers were running in and out and um secretaries were busy typing or answering phone calls it was hectic when I went to ask for uh Francisco Mendoza or when I would talk to someone they were they were pretty busy so I felt uncomfortable I felt like oh no I'm imposing they're gonna think what is she doing here and things like that that's the kind of that's the thought that I had that's what that's what made me think but uh towards now when I came back right now I was cheerful everyone was happy it was more calm I'm not saying that maybe the mural did it but it was it was different because they were pretty loud before.
