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The Mural Project at Cheremoya
Hollywood Orchard is currently working with a local artist to create a natural and cultural history of Los Angeles in the form of four murals covering three buildings on the campus of Cheremoya Elementary, a Title I school at the base of Beachwood Canyon. The murals will beautify the school grounds and support educational experiences that give the children a deeper understanding of where they live and foster a connection to the natural world.
Elkpen is a Los Angeles artist who tells stories about neighborhoods and natural history. Her drawings, signs, and murals have been shown and installed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Canada, and Mexico. She also created the design for the LA River Rover. For more information and work samples, please visit elkpen.com and Elkology, Instagram & Trashcomic
Images from Elkpen’s mural sketchbook
Images from Elkpen’s mural sketchbook
While our work with Cheremoya children dates back to 2012, Elkpen and volunteers from Hollywood Orchard have already begun to provide mural-related opportunities for the children, focusing on the core belief behind the mural project: connection. Exploring interrelationships between ourselves and the land, the sun and moon, our ancestors – the entire natural world, past and present. We have lead science-based art workshops for students from grades K-6th, and done several native planting workshops with the Cheremoya community. Once all four of the murals are up, the interactive learning potential for most any academic discipline is pretty much limitless, and identification and relationship games are rigged througout.
