Mural class goes 3D in breezeway

Dec. 5, 2024 – DENTON – Visual Arts professor Giovanni Valderas has found another dull, overlooked spot on campus to invigorate.

The location for this year's mural class is one the most high-traffic areas at TWU, located at the north-south center of campus. Of course, nobody travels to this site, they just pass through it.

The breezeway.

The what?

Unremarkable white stucco-covered kneewalls, pillars and ceiling surrounded by brick walls and storage sheds. Stairwell in the middle that doesn't go anywhere.

Uh…

On the east side of the Administrative and Conference Tower, beneath the walkway that opens toward Stoddard Hall. Hundreds of students, faculty and staff travel through the breezeway every day on the way to the Student Union at Hubbard Hall to the north or the CFO and the Arts & Sciences Building to the south.

Oh, yeah! I know where that is.

Two years ago, the mural class debuted on the first floor of the Union. Last year, the students tackled the giant wall on the side of the empty building at the corner of Oakland and Third Streets.

The ACT breezeway's enormous three-dimensional canvas presents a new challenge for the class' third iteration.

"Why wouldn't we want to be ambitious?" Valderas said. "This is what the school is about. We have to tackle these big challenges. So what better way to symbolize that than through this mural project?

"I have full faith in the students," he said. "I was thinking about finally being in a position where we can actually activate a space that's been kind of ignored. My hope is it becomes a space where people begin to congregate and hang out. When I saw the space, it was just a really interesting idea. It does seem complicated, but I think it's all about the design, and the design that was chosen integrates well. When it's done and it's just going to be almost electric the way that the design is going to pulsate."

The Union offered a covered, temperature-controlled environment, while last year's mural was a constant struggle against wet, cold weather and the wall's stucco that was in poor condition and needed multiple coats of primer. The breezeway, though outdoors, is covered and protected from the weather, and its stucco is in better shape.

The problem this year is the three-dimensional aspects, and the design had to take into account walls, ceilings and pillars.

"I remember on the first day when we walked there," said Ayah Shalabi from the design team called the Maroon Magnolias. "Gio took us to the space and told us we're painting here. We kind of all looked up and we were like, we're painting the ceiling? We all freaked out. That was actually very difficult to consider. We had to kind of think of everything in 3D. Fortunately for me, I came from a sculpture background, so I think that helped a little bit with our designs. At first, we were kind of thinking of each section separately. It was a little daunting at first. But eventually, once we started planning, we started to come up with a cohesive design that would excite the students, particularly since that area is kind of at the heart of the campus. So we wanted something that lights up that space, particularly since it's very dark there.

"The columns were probably the most difficult because it's a full-on wraparound design," Shalabi added. "We just kind of like played around with the things. I ended up making a version out of paper just to see what it would look like, and then it clicked. That was probably the hardest part in terms of 3D and scaling everything up because you draw on a flat surface and it's difficult to see. You're not going to see all of them at one time. So we had to kind of consider the different aspects of viewing in our design."

The design employs stained-glass imagery inspired by locations on campus.

"We knew that we wanted to include motifs representing the school, and we started with the owl and Minerva," Shalabi said. "As we continued developing our idea, we decided we just really wanted to hone in on the owl. We went to the library, did some research and we came up with this theme of stained glass leading back to the TWU Little Chapel and the stained glass in the library. We also wanted to include the sundials because that's a historic part of our school, too. The hands on the columns represent the different cultures around campus and reaching for our dreams."

"When looking at it now and seeing how the infrastructure ties to the theme, I think now I can understand, especially with the columns, the one that I had specifically made the concept of design for," said Linda Lentz, a member of the design team. "I can definitely see the pillars as a structure that upholds everything for TWU, the history, the legacy and the people behind it."

"We can create something that becomes more of a monument to the ideas and the values of this school," Valderas said. "So instead of ignoring an eyesore, we're going to celebrate it by transforming it. There's such a vibrancy to it. And I think overall, like, the color palette is more jewel tones. When people see the imagery, I think they'll really be impressed by it. The stained glass where the students were pulling a lot of the motif from, and integrated their own cultural experiences into the mural."

The next challenge was getting the mural completed by early December. The first stencils didn't go up until early November.

"We can get it done," Valderas said. "My thing is, artists are idealistic and optimistic, but then I think they're determined and they will come through. We always meet deadlines and we'll get done."