David Madrid

The Republic | azcentral.com

From Historic Avondale to downtown Peoria, at schools and cemeteries and even private backyards, murals dot the West Valley, adding color and often beauty to otherwise mundane walls and fences.

Murals are art, but they serve other purposes, too: They are used for advertising, preventing graffiti and sending other messages.

How many murals exist in the West Valley is difficult to calculate. They are found at elementary schools, high schools and colleges. They are painted at community centers, libraries and other public buildings. They cover walls in hospitals, on businesses and even appear along fences.

The murals are created by professionals and by artists who donate their work for recognition as they build names for themselves. Some are educational projects created to teach art to students.

Avondale might have the most murals of all the West Valley cities, including about 10 recently painted murals on Western Avenue.

In Avondale, it was the city's art walk that began in December 2009 that led to a big expansion in the number of murals.

From depictions of musical great Miles Davis blowing his trumpet, to Buddha overlooking an empty lot, to civil-rights icon Cesar Chavez, artists gave Avondale's original downtown an overhaul. About 15 murals cover parts of Western Avenue.

"We decided to go with a trend that is going on throughout the United States, which was to bring arts and culture to create more visibility for Historic Avondale," said Ernesto Fonseca, Avondale's revitalization manager.

Goodyear resident Christina Fabian-Roman is owner of In-Power Boutique and Art Gallery in Historic Avondale. She and an artist at In-Power, Tolleson resident Veronica Verdugo-Lomeli, who was then-chairwoman of the Avondale Artwalk, sought out the artists for the murals and coordinated the work through the Historic Avondale Merchants Association.

"I figured that doing the murals during the art walk would be a celebration of live art and an opportunity to reflect the cultures and the people and the artists that are in the community, and from the community, who are willing to give back," Fabian-Roman said.

The merchants association has Saturday mural events in which artists volunteer to create murals. The city supplies paint and advertises the involvement of the artists, and association members provide the walls.

"It is an event we're using to make artists, but also Western Avenue, much more visible throughout the West Valley," Fonseca said.

Painting murals isn't a new phenomenon; going to the dawn of history, people used a cave wall as a canvas. The ancient Egyptians and Mesoamericans were particularly adept at painting murals.

Today's street artists continue that tradition.

See the gallery of West Valley murals:

Among the artists is Hugo Medina, a 41-year-old Phoenix resident and native of Bolivia.

Medina participated in the Calle 16 mural project in 2010, creating murals along 16th Street in Phoenix.

"That just evolved with me going out and doing more murals with schools to try to get the kids to learn how to do murals and to redirect them somehow," he said.

The Historic Avondale merchants contacted Medina and offered him a wall. He created the Miles Davis mural.

"I was like, I want to do Miles, because I'm a huge Miles fan," Medina said. "I was doing it to help spark the murals and the interest in Western Avenue. It was one of the reasons they called me."

Fonseca said murals can prevent graffiti because neighbors are proud of the art.

He said the community members come out for the art walks and mural Saturdays and they feel as if the art is their own. Neighborhood children and other residents help paint the murals and learn about the art.

"When we do our event, everybody comes out, the kids, their families and the artists themselves," Fonseca said.

But not everyone appreciates the art.

A mural in the Goodyear Farms Historic Cemetery in Avondale that was painted in 2011 was destroyed in July 2012, said Kathi Soria, the director of the non-profit Ballet Folklorico Esperanza.

The mural was a painting with mariachi musicians, folklorico dancers and a Mesoamerican background. The Avondale dance group takes care of the cemetery and raises money for its upkeep.

The dance group commissioned the mural and local artist Aztec Smurf.

Soria said she cried when she saw the mural vandalized, covered with beige paint. But the group is planning to have the mural repainted as it was.

"Everybody enjoyed it when it was painted," she said. "One person can't change how everybody else feels."

Some murals are more private, like one on a backyard fence in Peoria.

Vincent Rogers is a Peoria resident whose artist name is Arthur Owsley. He wanted to branch into mural painting, so a family friend Dennis Gallegly offered his backyard fence, the east and south wall, to the 23-year-old artist. Gallegly bought the supplies.

"Dennis let me go wild on his wall," Rogers said. "He didn't really have anything he wanted me to paint in particular. I tried to stick to certain images that I like. I have jellyfish and owls that I like to paint, and thistles and lotuses. As I was putting images in, Dennis had some images he wanted put in, so most of the flowers are representative of his grandchildren."

Rogers said he likes to paint with vividly bright colors.

"Murals are something that I'm super passionate about, and I want to do a lot more of," he said.

Where to find the murals:

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