Alvarado Elementary School Mural
Strider Patton - Alvarado Elementary School Dia de los Muertos Mural
I was invited by a friend to help paint a mural at an elementary school here in San Francisco. It is part of the school's Dia de los Muertos festival and over 100 kids were to be involved with helping paint the wall. We arrived two days before to paint the background and tape off segments for the kids to paint on the festival day. It was a beautiful day in Noe Valley, and the background went up quickly and smoothly. I created an Aztec inspired pattern stencil to fill the large background and used two slightly different shades of teal / light blue to have the subtle stencil stand out from the wall.
The day of the festival we grouped the kids into six smaller teams that came to help paint in the marigold flower petals at different times throughout the day. Alvarado Elementary School is a beautiful place, with a rich history of focusing on the importance of the arts and culture. The kids were amazing and it was fun to have them come help paint with some wonderful live Mexican music in the background and all kinds of other activities, celebrating the meaning behind Dia de los Muertos!
