Marcus A. Foster Elementary School: Martin Luther King Mural Project, 2002-3

The Marcus A. Foster Elementary School
Martin Luther King Day Mural Project
Sponsored by Learning For Life

It all began in the first week of December, 2002, when I saw an ad on an Artist's Message Board wanting an artist to do a mural on the theme of Martin Luther King’s message at an Oakland Public Elementary School.

I emailed Julie McDonald, the events coordinator from Learning For Life, which was the non-profit funding the mural. She and I met to discuss it. She liked my design and informed me that there is no art and no art teachers in Oakland Public Elementary schools anymore. I was horrified, trying to imagine my dismal life in elementary school without art to look forward to...

Because I was layed off at the time, I decided to devote the month to the mural, part of which meant going into the classrooms with Julie and getting the kids to draw pictures to go in the mural.

To me, Martin Luther King’s basic message is that we can all live together and grow together in the warmth and light of the Spirit, and I saw that symbolized in a garden with a giant sun shining down upon it. I wanted to have the students draw creatures that would live together harmoniously in the garden.

The idea is to give the kids a way to foster their creativity and build some positive self-esteem by showing them a project from start to finish that they were involved in, that now beautifies their school. The neighborhood that surrounds this school is poor and infested with drugs.

I called my friend, John McKnight, in Denver, Colorado, who owns his own paint company and has over 30 years of experience in residential and commercial construction, to advise me on how to proceed with this incredibly rough stucco exterior wall. He was my technical consultant and strong spiritual support through the whole project.

Julie, her boyfriend, 3 Americorps workers and I met on the weekends prior to Martin Luther King Day to plaster and prime the wall in preparation for painting on January 20, 2003.

We apply glue to the wall

We apply plaster to the wall, and gain a new respect for construction workers

Julie & I put the outline of the mural's background on the wall for the participants to follow...

On Martin Luther King Day, Learning For Life had a giant party at Marcus A. Foster Elementary (where we were)--2850 West Street at 29th Street, Oakland, California and at Manzanita Elementary. They provided food and workshops for the community and paintbrushes and paint. All the kids got together with teachers and parents and painted the mural background.

A high school age artist named Francisco, who attends McClymond's High School around the corner, paints the sun.

Francisco and I continue painting while everyone else goes inside for pizza...

A friend snaps a shot of me alone in front of the finished mural...

In the following 2.5 months, Julie and I got together every Friday morning for about 4 hours and worked on the mural. First, we painted all the kid’s creatures in white so that the colors would be brilliant once we applied them.

Detail of the mural with all the creatures painted in white...

Julie painting the white cactus flowers...

Next we applied the colors.

Julie applies color to the snake in the watermelon vine...

After we had all the drawings up, we put in the textured grass to unify the mural.

On the last day, we put in the poem by a 5th-grader. The poem had been written before the mural project came to the school which we thought was prophetic...We finished the mural on Thursday, March 13, 2003.

“I have a Dream that we will see a rainbow on a rainy day full of stars with the sun shining down on our faces.
I have a Dream that children all over the United States should live to see the wonderful things in life like birds, bees, and even a whale in the deep blue sea."