In the summer of 2021, I was invited by the City of Nogales and the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent’s Office to teach a group of high school students how to paint a mural. This project was an international collaboration with students and faculty hailing from the Mexican and American sides of Nogales. I worked with the renowned Mexican muralist Tony Plak to lead these classes and manage our $10,000 project budget. Our students had varying artistic abilities, and our job was to find a way for everyone to make a meaningful contribution to the piece. We worked together to establish fundamental artistic skills and identify our subject matter. We collectively decided to focus on the flora and fauna that call this land home. After researching our subjects online and in the field, we created a composition that was successfully translated to the 40×15′ outdoor wall surface.
Nogales Mural Class
