A hilly, bumpy dirt road amid volcanic mountains and lush greenery led to the site of my first muraling experience in El Salvador: a rural school on the outskirts of Apopa.

I arrived in the middle of the kindergarten graduation (to my eyes a prom day for kids). While these cute and festooned children received their diplomas, I was introduced to several blank school walls crying out for color. With a black crayon in hand, I thought up some designs on the fly that would spark up the school a bit.

By the visit’s end, outlines of ducks, lions, underwater creatures, big butterflies, blooming flowers, and patchwork hills covered the walls. But my favorite part was the big blank wall in the back of the school, where I dipped into abstraction. With the crayon in hand, I set the scene for a colorful landscape with sinewy lines of paint twirling with broad eddies of colorful swirls, surrounded by bubbles of color. What was to come of these outlined murals I would see in a couple of days, when volunteers would come out in force to this little school in the mountains.

I returned to the Apopa school several days in the company of a crew of about 40 Salvadoran volunteers. Everyone was ready to fill in the mural with brilliant color, as well as to rehabilitate the rest of the school by creating gardens, a playground, and repairing the furniture and structure. Cups of colorful pigments and paintbrushes of all sizes were handed out to the mural team, and we got to work. All the volunteers were dedicated and working hard, and graciously putting up with my stilted Spanish. (Gracias amigos!)

Part of Glasswing International’s mission (and part of the point of public art, in my opinion) is to connect all levels of the community. The connection shined through in Apopa on this day. Army soldiers were present at the school with an abundance of weaponry in response to heightened violent gang activity in the area. They stood on the outskirts of the school property watching the whirlwind of volunteers at work. Eventually, they were invited to join in. With shy smiles on their faces, they uncertainly came over. Someone handed them a few paintbrushes, and soon they were knee deep in the mural work, carefully painting the scenes alongside volunteers and community members.

Pictured here, a Salvadoran army soldier and a young girl work together to paint a big happy whale in the underwater scene mural.

The school was a different place at the end of the day, and the community a bit closer together for it. Full photographic portrayal of the mural's creation is available on Flickr.

Business & Non-Profits Murals
Muirals in Homes
Public Art Murals