A local school board was threatening to without the final payment to an artist after seeing the completed mural. They changed their position late today.
Good.
The issue at hand was that the final mural didn’t match the original sketch in some details. The uniform was a different shade of blue, the badge on the shoulder was slightly different, and the physique of the soldier was slightly less comic-like than the original sketch.
At least, that’s what I noticed when I looked at the side-by-side comparison while waiting in line at the gas station and reading the headline. The original looked too comic-like to me and in the final version the dude had that real-life look of a bad-ass drill instructor.
Then I read the article. The sketch had a white guy in it and the final version had a black guy.
Sigh.
I’m not an art-dude; I can’t even match my own clothes, but the sketch had a different background color than the actual gymnasium wall. In the real world it was very light colored, and if you’ve ever been in a high school gymnasium you’ll quickly notice that they’re lighted quite brightly.
It would have looked dumb to try and shoe-horn in a pale character onto that wall. The artist did a bang-up job if you ask me. Arturo Araujo is his name, and while I don’t have any plans to hire an artist for a mural I’d certainly consider him.
Damn. The final product looks GRADE A BAD-ASS!
Besides, the Hispanic and African-American students outnumber the white students by a long shot at that school. It fits a little better.
