A new mural welcomed Los Medanos College’s students into the fall 2024 semester. The design, which says “Love your journey” in capital letters was painted on the stairs in front of the Pittsburg campus Student Services building.
It was a student-led project in Professor Eric Sanchez’s color theory class last semester. Anna Capperauld and her group’s design was ultimately chosen to be sent to the President’s Cabinet for approval.
Capperauld, the main artist for the design, said she wanted to add a pop of color to the campus and came up with the idea of putting the mural on the stairs.
“It’s an area where the public first kind of comes in and sees the school because most people are going to Student Services to sign up for classes or to learn more about the college, so it changes the experience,” Sanchez said.
Student Ileana Garcia, who worked on the design and installation, said the original idea was to put strips of color on the stairs. The group instead decided to put words on the stairs instead, creating an illusion effect.
Student Jonelle Cabale, who also worked on the design, explained that the group wanted to do something big as the purpose of the project was to celebrate LMC’s 50th anniversary.
The students made a mockup by taking a photo of the stairs and using Photoshop to see how the design would look.
To start the installation of the mural, the team began working at night as Sanchez projected the design onto the stairs while they marked the outline with tape.
“It was a long trial and error process. We were taping as Eric was putting the projection up, so it was a lot of taping,” Garcia said. “It was also really windy so a lot of the tape that we would use to align it almost like a grid kept flying off.”
Once the taping was done, they used milk paint for the mural, which was also used to paint the trees to celebrate last semester’s graduation. Garcia said they chose to use it as it’s vibrant and environmentally friendly.
Sanchez said the process of taping and painting the mural took a week and was completed shortly before the start of the fall semester.
While Capperauld wasn’t able to help with the installation of the mural, she was impressed by the team’s work adding, “They saw my vision and they took it and did a great job of interpreting it.”
Garcia emphasized how teamwork played a big role in the project.
Similarly, Cabale said he enjoyed how the group worked together, adding “I think that was the most efficient team I’ve ever worked with.”
The group sent in two other designs that said “Los Medanos College” and “Take the next step,” but the district ultimately chose “Love your journey.”
“Everybody has a different path,” Capperauld said, explaining her interpretation of the chosen design. “No one’s path is the same, but you should still love who you are and your journey.”
Cabale said it’s nice for students to look at the design saying, “Wherever you are in your career as a community college student, it’s important to like where you are.”
Garcia believes it’s important for student artwork to be showcased on campus.
“Creating any artwork for community college, I feel like it really emphasizes community, especially if it’s student work,” she said.
