Melena Suliteanu, 15, didn’t paint much before September 2008, except for smiley faces and suns as an elementary-schooler. The South Eugene High School art student can now boast painting a reusable rainbow parade, field trip to Nirvana, opposing reflections of a universal atmosphere, and unlikely friendship.
Suliteanu, along with two-dozen other young adults, wants you to see her group’s collaborative interpretations of Eugene, which are painted on a 15-by-75-foot wall behind WOW Hall. From Sept. 8-23, the Youth Mural Collective members depicted their community via mural with guidance from Steven Lopez, a former Eugenean graffiti artist.
“In the beginning, none of you knew each other,” Lopez said to the group at the mural’s debut Tuesday, chuckling. “By the end of the second week, you were a little too comfortable together.”
Hysterical laughing and sentimental parting remarks were abundant as Collective members spent Tuesday evening celebrating their work in the recently opened Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corporation’s WestTown on 8th complex. The building sits adjacent to the mural, just beyond WOW Hall.
There, the group watched a slideshow of the mural process, ate cake with a frosted image of the mural, discussed their future plans, and received certificates among wild rounds of applause from family members, significant others, community members and mural sponsors.
The project may be over, but one thing is certain: Everyone who worked on the mural wants the vibrant wall to stay up indefinitely as a positive message of what young people can offer their communities.
At the debut reception, students spoke of their dreams, spurred by the mural process.
“You’ll definitely see my name around,” Kirby Picozzi, 21, said. “I have a role in our community. I’m going to try to connect with more artists, to enter in more galleries.”
The Youth Mural Collective wanted to create public art in response to the blame placed on disenfranchised youth for problems in downtown Eugene. Sad to be finished, Suliteanu said that everyday after school she worked on the mural between 3:30 and 9 p.m., and painted two weekend days between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. During those intensive days, she connected with other youth she had never imagined she would find commonalities with.
Among the mural artists were local young people ages 15-24, recruited by community partners that included 4-J schools, Looking Glass Youth & Family Services, Juventud FACETA, and the Leadership Education Adventure Direction. The Youth Mural Collective began as a committee of Children & Families’ Positive Youth Development and the Youth Action Board.
Collective members received various forms of payment, including high school credit, community service hours and stipends provided by the Lane County Department of Children and Families’ Youth Action Board.
“We aim to give homeless and runaway youth a good outlet to use their creative and artistic skills in a collaborative environment,” said Talia Barnes, who is part of the Youth Action Board. “If we can give stipends, it helps that. Everyone who applied for a stipend got one.”
The muralists also said say goodbye to their beloved leader while claiming the piece of cake with the frosted mural that was “their part,” the portion they painted on the wall. “Steven! Steven!” they called out. “I gotta have a hug!”
Lopez returns to Los Angeles next week after spending the past five weeks in Eugene. Fenario Gallery displayed his Modular Transformation show in early September and he was sought out to lead the Youth Mural Collective because of his previous mural instructing in 2000 with the ArtWall project.
“I have students who tell me four or five years after our projects, ‘Because of you, I went to med school’ or ‘I opened my own tattoo shop,’” Lopez said. “That makes it all worth it.”
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