In the summer of 2004 I had the opportunity to work with a group of students in Nogales, Arizona through a program called Santa Cruz County Workforce Development. The goals for the project were twofold: to create a lasting public art project for the city’s landscape, and to give students a six-week educational experience which would help them develop and discover skills related to creative careers,

The inspiration for the mural design came from the rich trove of colorful signage in the downtown Nogales area. I wanted the piece to capture the quality of a bustling commercial district in a border town, to somehow encapsulate it’s multifaceted qualities in a form that would highlight and at the same time unify the work of individual students. The metal grid became the structure on which to hang all the elements of this variation together formally, and to restate a signage motif.

Over the course of six weeks, nine students worked first on their individual creative skills and personal portfolios and then increasingly on the actual components of the mural. On tours of downtown we took photos, talked about the district’s history, and about commercial and architectural visual language. In class we drew from life, from the imagination, and from books and magazines. We talked about the creative process in general, as it applies to any endeavor, and the students developed their own pieces with increasing personal initiative.

In the end students selected sampled letters and images from their own photos and drawings and enlarged them in acrylic paint on steel panels. In separate shifts they worked cutting, grinding, and welding to help build the armature on which the panels would be hung. Along the way they even executed a commissioned side project: creating a colorful paper mural to be hung in the windows of a local department store. Students worked long hours in sometimes hot, difficult conditions, and did a tremendous job.

The piece is installed permanently across the street from the border fence at the corner of E. International and N. Nelson streets in Nogales, just down the block from the Garrita crossing at Morely Ave.

The student artists were: Ramon Arochi, Crystal Guerrero, Kristine Haro, Juan Hernandez, Francisco Leyva, Jelani Longorio, and Vicente Miranda.

The project’s coordinator was Elaine Mariolle, a tireless promoter and facillitator of programs for kids at Workforce Development in Nogales. My dauntless co-teacher and head fabricator was Todd Poelstra, an experienced setbuilder, teacher, and director currently at the Theater Arts Department of Pima Community College in Tucson. The Project was made possible by Nils Urman, Director of Workforce Development, and also a grant from La Vida En Artes.