Empowerment Congress of DAC is one of the many community partners that delivers youth programming at Lynn Community Middle School. EC and Lynn share a vision where youth voices are provided space in our community so that they can express who they are and where they have an opportunity to be a part of the formation of the spaces and places that surround them. These murals center the conversations and desires of young minds to be heard, respected, valued, and responded to in an accepting and collaborative manner. As a community school and community partner, this collaborative project is another effort to engage and integrate the students’ and community’s involvement at the Lynn CMS.
DesconlonizARTE is a project funded and coordinated by the Empowerment Congress of DAC.
Lynn Middle School Community Paint-By-Numbers Mural 2020
Lead Artists: Eugenia “AO” Carmona
AO, Lead Artist, previously worked on a community paint-by-numbers mural, such as one sponsored by CRUCES CREATIVES at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Public Library in Las Cruces, NM. She was commissioned to design this mural on the exterior of Lynn Community Middle School in collaboration with Empowerment Congress’s ENLACE afterschool program for DAC youth.
The ideas and elements brought to the mural were done in collaboration with ENLACE’s youth groups. Talk about racial division and prejudice was a common thread amongst the concerns of many members of the group. Instead of using a realistic drawing of a face, on the far left until mid mural, I designed large organic shapes encompassing diverse colors of skin tones threading into each other used to represent the coming together of cultures with two pairs of eyes representing the masculine and feminine energies. The butterflies between the eyes are used to symbolize the transformation and openness of respecting and accepting cultural differences. Other topics discussed were the concern for respecting nature and the freedom to dream.
The youth voiced out their respect towards nature, which was drawn just below the purple set of eyes, as a grey Roadrunner in which the color symbolizes the color of rock and the roadrunner as a grounded desert being. The green squares on the top right of the mural and the purple parallel lines on the far top right, represent the color of vegetation and sunsets. Apart from nature, topics about the importance of dreams, fun, and imagination came up. The boxing glove and the roller skate were used as elements representing goals, dreams, and the freewill of training and having fun.
