Carlsbad Art and Culture

I arrived on the campus of Aviara Oaks Middle School while students found their classes and parents maneuvered the gauntlet of the morning drop-off. The sky was heavy with gray and a late spring wind tumbled off the ocean.

I greeted my canvas, a 30 ft. tall wall on the backside of an elevator column. I had 10 hours to paint before the school’s scheduled open house and the unveiling of my mural, along with three others by Skye Walker, Tierney Moses and Sean Dominguez.

I stood in front of the wall with design in a hand and glanced up at the blank canvas and then at my design. I mapped the exact point where red, orange and yellow would join. On top of these warm colors, and further from the light blue background, a stenciled student carried by a falcon would triumphantly soar skyward.

I began sketching the composition with straight lines growing from the base of rounded patterns like a flower emerging from a shower-damped soil.

I loaded the lift with multiple gallons of paint and carefully maneuvered within the dirt base and up the stucco surface. Moments after the ring of each schoolbell, I found myself in a sea of students that filled and receded like the tides at a full moon.

Hundreds of eyes affixed on me and the progress of Falcon Boy, named after the school’s mascot. Seeing all those young and intrigued eyes reminded me of a very important moment during my childhood, as a young student at Magnolia Elementary in Carlsbad, when a visiting artist changed my life.

I knew that I could potentially inspire like the artist who inspired me many years ago. The one who published the “How to draw” book that I saved my lunch money to buy off a classmate. The artist who produced the after-school drawing television series that I raced home each day to watch, and most importantly, the artist who inspired me to follow my passion.

As I painted at the school, students lined the second level balcony for art trivia. Students who answered my modern art questions received once unattainable treasures from the rooftop I painted from.

Many students found interest in the large stencil sprawled on the asphalt at the base of the wall. Encouraging them to take a closer look at the stencil technique, I invited them to draw and write poetry directly on it. One student helped me roll a section of the mural and another bounced around the campus capturing the progress of my mural through a series of photos. I traded drawings with another student who sat and documented my mural through pencil illustrations.

I finished the mural after school’s end. Luckily most of the students returned with their parents for open house. Hundreds of eyes watched as removed the final falcon stencil resulting in a thunderous applause, though I considered the art the interactions I had with the students hours prior.

Like that day the the artist visited my 3rd grade school, I visited Aviara Oaks Middle School to engage with the students, share the creative process—and most importantly—to encourage the discovery of one’s passion.

Thank you Aviara Oaks Middle School and the Carlsbad School District for facilitating this experience for the students!

black and white portrait by Bane Visnjic