Today was the unveiling party for the Civitan Fine Arts group's Arizona Treasures mural at Orange Tree Resort. The mural was created to help the GSE members learn the professional and business side to being an artist. Painting the mural also helped expand the horizon for Civitan's Fine Arts group while providing an excellent opportunity for self expression and self discovery. To everyone at Orange Tree this mural gave a chance to show the true beauty of some of Arizona's most beloved places while providing another opportunity to work with a fellow non-profit organization. Everything from the Grand Canyon with it's Colorado River, desert wildlife, and the Monument Valley mountains with their unforgettable sunsets to the city side with Chase Fields Ball Park, the Light Rail, and Orange Tree's resort. The original ideas for the mural were created on a rendering to show Orange Tree our thoughts for the mural. After discussing with Orange Tree what to tweak the next step was getting someone to prepare the wall. It was re-stuccoed and given a wash of white paint so that the final design could be drawn out on the wall; first in pencil then darkened with black sharpie. We then gave a light wash of our background color. Next Anthony and Merilee created the sunset in the sky. Then using a variety of brush stroke techniques used with acrylic paints the group began painting the scene. After everything was painted in to our satisfaction we added finishing touches to it and signed the mural. This project took a few months in full to create and the end result was truly something remarkable. Civitan's Fine Arts group created this mural together. Our members Anthony, Jessica, Cody, Lynn, and Leah were guided and directed by our teacher Merilee.
To me this mural represents that people with special needs are equally capable of creating professional grade artwork expressing creative freedom as people without special needs. Many employees from Civitan Foundation were there along with members from the day program, the artists themselves with their teacher, and the team of employees and club members of Orange Tree. Creating this mural with our team was absolutely incredible and gave me a real sense of accomplishment. To others it represents a handful of reasons to love such an amazing state.
To me this mural represents that people with special needs are equally capable of creating professional grade artwork expressing creative freedom as people without special needs. Many employees from Civitan Foundation were there along with members from the day program, the artists themselves with their teacher, and the team of employees and club members of Orange Tree. Creating this mural with our team was absolutely incredible and gave me a real sense of accomplishment. To others it represents a handful of reasons to love such an amazing state.