Artists gather to create Palmdale murals
Couple won California grant last year to start first of 4 unique eastside works
PALMDALE — Artists and art educators Ethel and Carlo Zafranco will start of the first of four unique murals Feb. 18 for the East Palmdale Mural Project and the public is invited to help paint.
The couple won a state grant last year for their project from the 18th Street Arts Center California Creative Corps Project. The cohort of 18 fellows (out of more than 400 applicants) submitted projects designed to reduce the barriers to health and well-being in communities that demonstrate the highest level of need, according to a description.
The Zafrancos pitched a mentorship program in Palmdale for high school students to become professional muralists and install the murals in their own community. They are working with students from Knight, Littlerock, Palmdale and R. Rex Parris high schools.
The couple has been working closely with the City of Palmdale. The four unique murals will go up in a four-block radius along Palmdale Boulevard. The artists held a community painting day event Nov. 18 to collect input from local residents on what they would like to see in the murals. The designs for the four murals are based on community input, surveys and conversations with the students and what was important to them. They also got approval from the Palmdale Public Art Commission.
“This is going to be out first mural out in public,” Ethel Zafranco said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
The event is open to people of all ages with any level of art experience or none at all.
“We will be there to facilitate and to guide them throughout the event,” she said.
Supplies will be provided. Each of the four murals will kick off with an event like this. The Zafrancos selected the walls for their mural project while driving around town.
“Every time we’d be driving around we’d look at the walls and be like, ‘Oh, this is a good location and its experiencing graffiti,’” Ethel Zafranco said. “Our mural have deterred graffiti, at least all the ones we’ve done up until this point. So we’re trying to help the graffiti problem in Palmdale while also brining more art to the area.”
The murals are funded by the state, so there is no cost to the building owner.
“We got a lot of nos surprisingly but Andy’s Auto Parts was one of the few that was interested in actually going through with it,” she said.
She wants to keep the design of the mural as a surprise to encourage people to come out and participate on Feb. 18 so they can see it for themselves; however, the mural will be car-themed since it will be painted on the side of an auto parts store.
“Our program has gotten a lot of support from the lowrider community,” she said.
The lowriders will come out and showcase their cars the day of the event.
“It’s in the Palmdale landscape kind of celebrating east Palmdale,” she said.