Share this Story
Marlins Make a Mural
Students in art professor John Rudel's FYE course make a permanent mark on Downtown Norfolk for NEON Festival
By Staff | October 19, 2015
Where there was once a blank gray wall on the side of a building near the intersection of Granby Street and Olney Road in downtown Norfolk, a colorful sky has emerged. Or, to be more precise, “illusionistic representations of cloud forms with geometric patterning that loosely relates to pixilation.”
That’s how Associate Professor of Art John Rudel described the “Blue Sky” mural project in a recent interview on AltDaily.com. Rudel created the mural along with about a dozen Virginia Wesleyan students in his fall 2015 First-Year Experience (FYE) course. The mural had its premiere as part of the NEON Festival, a “two-day celebration of energy and light in Norfolk’s Arts District,” Oct. 15-16.
The mural is now a permanent fixture on the back of the Virginia Furniture Company building and is one of a series of artistic embellishments that have been created in the area in an effort to improve its aesthetics and add to a sense of cultural vitality.
As for the meaning behind the mural itself, Rudel offers a few possibilities related to our collective understanding and interpretation of the highly digitized world in which we all live but says the creative process was also an essential part of the final product.
“The fact that the piece was created as a collaborative endeavor that invited students to make creative decisions in the execution of the work adds to the meaning,” said Rudel on AltDaily.com. “We live in a world of increased complexity that is defined by specializations and divisions. The process of creation, and aesthetic of this image, mimics that notion.”
All first-year students at Virginia Wesleyan are required to take an FYE course. Led by a faculty mentor, the course allows a small, close-knit group of new students to engage in an array of activities and exercises that invite them to explore the liberal arts, connect to the campus community, and develop the personal resourcefulness that leads to success in college.
“The project models what these students are doing with their liberal arts education,” Rudel told WTKR Channel 3 news in a video segment that recently aired about the project, “learning how to see things from multiple perspectives and synthesize ideas together.”
The Virginia Wesleyan students involved in the “Blue Sky” mural project included: Jazmyne Brooks ’19, Lydia Johnson ’19, Adam Kurek ’19, Kathryn Kurzenknabe ’19, Mary McLaughlin ’17, Samantha Nason ’17, Bailey Rammling ’19, Madison Soto ’19, Tonesha Taylor ’19, Kayla Wright ’19, and Ja'Lisa Yates ’19.
These students not only had a unique learning experience but were able to leave a permanent mark on the community and create something that will be enjoyed by thousands of people for years to come.
“It’s very important because most of us were first-year students,” student Jazmyne Brooks told WTKR Channel 3. “We didn’t expect to be a part anything this big or this cool.”