By Ellen Spitaleri
At 5,000 square feet and 250 feet in length, the new mural at Abernethy Elementary School is a colorful, eye-popping wonder to behold, and Aaron Stoertz considers it to be the perfect example of a SE Portland project.
Stoertz, who is the president of Abernethy PTA, noted that the mural came together because of the efforts of Dani Loureiro, a professional illustrator; Parker Martinek, a local muralist who scraped, washed and traced the artwork onto the huge wall; Lovett Deconstruction, who loaned the scaffolding; and more than 50 community volunteers who gathered on May 30 to paint most of the wall in one day, he said.
But most of all, he said, was the fact that Abernethy art teacher Candace Jahn worked with the students on the design, so the artwork is genuinely theirs.
Finally, he said that “the mural grew out of a desire to make art, to make our shared space beautiful and to celebrate the school community and this wonderful neighborhood. It also marks a milestone—Abernethy turned 100 last year.” For him, the most rewarding part of the entire project was “seeing what’s possible when folks work together.”
He said that when the mural idea was first discussed, people thought that it would be impossible to do such a big project that looked professional. But “in the end, we’re ahead of schedule and it’s even more beautiful than we expected. The kids are really proud of their outdoor space. We are too.”
In addition to being a professional illustrator, Loureiro is also an artist, creative director and the mother of two Abernethy students. She noted that she has worked on other design projects for the school but was really excited about designing a mural for such a huge wall.
Her number one priority was working with the art teacher so that all the students could participate in the design and painting of the mural. “We wanted the design to be reflective of the things that they love about their school, their community and Oregon in general,” she said, adding that students were asked to create artwork around these three ideas.
“We needed to keep the artwork quite simple, so we asked the kids to create art with scissors, glue and construction paper; this kept the forms simple and produced artwork that had naive charm,” Loureiro said.
The artwork was scanned in and she took all 250 submissions and started pulling out pieces and themes to build the design. “I kept the color palette bright and fun and built the design in a grid-like structure to maximize the number of pieces of art that I could include; the idea was to build a design that could be a paint-by-number with large areas of flat color,” Loureiro said.
In addition, Loureiro chose artwork for the mural that represented the SE Portland community, along with life in Oregon. Because she loves working with letters, she also incorporated words and positive messages in the mural.
While doing her research for the mural project, Loureiro learned that the term Pacific Wonderland was actually developed by school children in the 1950s as part of a competition for Oregon’s 100th birthday. “I thought it was fitting to bring it back to school children and use it in the mural as it perfectly captures our beautiful part of the world.”
Loureiro said that once the design was solidified, she contacted muralist Martinek who, after scraping old paint and grime off the surface, began prepping and priming it, and finally used a large-scale projector to trace the artwork onto the wall over three nights.
“Once the images were traced, a number was designated to correspond with a paint color, making it a giant paint-by-numbers art piece. Dani then showed the kids how to apply the paint to the wall,” he said.
For Loureiro, the most rewarding part of the whole project was having her children be proud of her and telling their friends that their mom designed the mural. She also loved working with the students, “seeing how proud they are of having their ideas and artwork on such a huge legacy piece.”
Martinek, the owner of His Rolling Highness, a sign and mural painting company, said that the most rewarding part of the project was “watching the kids smile and the community come together. It was incredibly special to see the kids painting pieces bigger than they are tall. It truly means a lot to me.”
He said that his high school art teacher helped him pursue his dream at a time when he didn’t have much support, and that encouragement helped create the path he’s on today. He added, “Being able to share this work and experience with the community now feels very full circle. I also wanted to show my gratitude to the teachers. We all know they are more than educators.”
Stoertz added that the community is invited to participate in the final painting session Saturday, July 25. For more information about the event or to donate to the project, visit give.supportabernethy.org.
Fifth grade students at Abernethy Elementary School helped paint the colorful mural during the first community workday. Photo by Ellen Spitaleri.
