Until recently, the outer walls of the Allan Hancock College Atkinson Lifelong Learning Center were bare—a stark contrast to the colorful environment of learning, community, and creativity fostered by the program.
Some of the center’s excitement began to spill outside those walls, however, drawing together a group of people and resources that would make it possible for a new project to begin. The group initiated a community mural project that would not only serve as a learning experience for students on the mural development process, but would stand as thing of beauty and inspiration for the more than 700 students who attend classes at the center.
The center offers free GED, citizenship, computer, basic skills, gardening, and digital photography classes. The painting features three students next to a set of acrylic paints, mixing the colors for the painting. It also features three students in an Atkinson classroom, learning how their community works. Artist and instructor Servando Garcia spearheaded the project with help from a group of student artists.
Garcia said the painting represents its own creation and the empowerment of education.
The 1,500-square-foot mural’s title, You Are Here, holds just as much significance as the painting itself. Garcia said the title is what it is—as opposed to We are Here—because he doesn’t identify the viewer collectively. Instead, he regards the viewer as he does himself: an individual.
Ardis Neilsen, dean of Allan Hancock College Community Education and the initiator of the project, said in a statement that the mural isn’t just a public art project, it’s also a tool for fostering human and community development.
The mural took about four months to complete. Garcia said working with the other artists and students was a fun challenge. He said James McKinney and Rosalie Stanson led the classroom side of things, while Juan Manuel Perez handled the local neighborhood representation. Mauro and Caitlin Anda, Paula Teplitz, and more assisted with technical drawing and painting throughout the effort. Patricia Smith organized the entire structure of the Central Coast satellite image. And Taylor Guerra represented the long wall of the courtyard, which Garcia said he considers ground zero of the project and is the perspective that first inspired the project.
Garcia said when people view art, they instantly know if they like it or some part of it, because that part resonates with what individuals think of as good or true. Conversely, when they see art they don’t like, it’s usually because it causes a negative connotation.
“In a moment, art can either confirm or denounce our deepest connection to life,” he said.
Garcia said he wants his work to not create an escape from reality, but to generate a positive response to it. And that’s how he views his work.
“I approach painting as a field of enjoyment, reason, and invention, without fear of failure, because I think this is how a person is supposed to approach life,” he said.
Garcia has been painting since 1993. The instructor has taught art appreciation, life drawing, and painting the human figure at Hancock and has work in the faculty show hanging in the Foxworthy Gallery. He also has a solo show set for November at Togonon Gallery in San Francisco and will be in a group show at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum in August. m
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is raising three muralists who prefer crayon, marker, and the texture of a freshly painted wall. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2009.