Infamous Network presents Root Concepts

We stand behind the students and faculty of Miller Valley School and our friends the Mural Mice! Miller Valley School is in the same neighborhood as the Infamous Network HQ... the children of this school DO represent our community!

Below is the text of the original article published in the Courier:


6/2/2010 10:04:00 PM
Art Attack: Elementary school mural getting a 'lighter' facelift

By CINDY BARKS and PAULA RHODEN
The Daily Courier

PRESCOTT - A new mural at Miller Valley Elementary School that depicts children of several races using "green" transportation methods appears to have struck a nerve among some Prescott residents.

Since the late-May unveiling of the "Go on Green" mural, dozens of local residents have expressed their views - both pro and con - about the painting that covers two exterior walls at the school at Prescott's Four-Points intersection.

An article about the unveiling on The Daily Courier's website generated about 60 online reader comments, while Prescott Unified School District and Prescott City Hall reported getting calls.

Although many of the comments on the Courier's website offer unqualified admiration for the mural, others are harshly critical, using words such as "tacky," "ugly" and "ghetto."

The subtext in some of the comments: race.

R.E. Wall, director of the Prescott Downtown Mural Project, described weeks of tense working conditions for the "Mural Mice," the group of artists responsible for the Miller Valley mural and several others around town.

As the Miller Valley mural took shape, Wall said, he and the other artists working at the site heard regular racial slurs from the passengers of cars driving by.

Wall reports hearing comments such as "You're desecrating our school," "Get the ni----- off the wall," and "Get the sp-- off the wall."

"The pressure stayed up consistently," Wall said. "We had two months of cars shouting at us."

He attributes the start of the racial controversy to recent comments that Prescott City Councilman Steve Blair made on his KYCA radio talk show about the mural.

On his May 21 show, for instance, Blair said, "I am not a racist individual, but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who's president of the United States today and based upon the history of this community when I grew up, we had four black families - who I have been very good friends with for years - to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, 'Why?'"

On Wednesday, Blair again emphasized that "I'm not a racist by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever people start talking about diversity, it's a word I can't stand."

Blair questions whether the mural is representative of Prescott, noting, "The focus doesn't need to be on what's different; the focus doesn't need to be on the minority all the time."

Blair said he has received a number of calls from long-time Prescott residents who ask, "Who authorized that graffiti on the wall?" He added: "What these people don't like is somebody forcing diversity down their throats."

Wall said that the "pressure" reached such a level this past week that his group has been asked to lighten the faces of the mural's main subject, as well as the other children in the mural.

"They want us to lighten up the forehead and the cheeks (of the boy in the center), and make him look like he is coming into the light," Wall said, adding that school officials asked to have all of the children's faces appear more "radiant and happy."

That work began this past Sunday, when Wall and co-artist Pamela Smith began lightening up a portion of the boy's forehead. The work will continue during the next several days.

Blair said that even though he believes the Mural Mice are "truly artists," and that their other murals have been successful, "Art is in the eye of the beholder, but I say (the Miller Valley mural) looks like graffiti in L.A."

He also questions the choice of location for the mural. "From my standpoint, it's the most visible intersection in the City of Prescott, and one of the most historic buildings, and they're painting a mural on it?"

In addition, Blair suggested that the mural creators might not have made a good enough case in their storytelling for the mural. "I don't see anything that ties the community into that mural," he said.

Wall and representatives of the Prescott Alternative Transportation organization, which paid for the mural with money it receives through the Arizona Department of Transportation's Safe Routes to School program, emphasize the mural design was the result of extensive participation by Miller Valley Elementary School faculty and students.

And Paul Katan, the Safe Routes to School program coordinator, pointed out that the artists based the mural's subjects on several Miller Valley School students, who posed for a photo. The boy in the center is of Mexican descent, Katan added.

"I was very surprised to hear Councilman Blair on his radio show target the ethnic differences of the students who modeled for this mural as a problem," Katan said. "I see the students in the murals as a cross-section of the school's population."

Katan added, "The theme of the mural comes down to keeping kids healthy and safe in what can sometimes be a dangerous world."

Miller Valley Principal Jeff Lane explained that the mural artists showed six designs to the school's students. The students voted on their favorite and sent the top three designs to the teachers. The teachers selected the final design for the new mural.

"The teachers selected this design because it focused on children and their role in the environment," Lane said.

The Miller Valley Mural Committee met with the mural officials May 28 to talk about some changes before the mural was completed. Lane said the school committee, which included him and two teachers, asked the artists to work on the children's faces.

According to Lane, the committee wanted the artists to "make them look happier and more excited, fix the scale of the faces and remove some shadowing that made the faces darker than they are. We also wanted some changes to the banner."

The goal, the principal said, is to have the changes completed in two weeks.

Lane and Prescott Unified School District Superintendent Kevin Kapp confirmed that they have received calls about the new mural. While some of the calls were negative, the school officials said most of the comments were positive.

Kapp said some people were bothered that the artists painted the mural over "old red brick."

Other people, he said, did not understand the mural.

The mural celebrates the environment and Miller Valley as a green school. "It celebrates the diversity at Miller Valley," Kapp said.

Lane has also received "a few negative comments, but quite a few were positive. But the comments have slowed down. I think I only received one this past week."

Wall allows that some of the suggestions have been "constructive criticism," which he said the artists would use to make the mural more accurately depict the photos of the Miller Valley School models.