Artists beautify temporary tunnel with mural
By Mathew Foresta
Jan. 25, 2013 1:28 a.m.
The once barren tunnel leading to the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is now a gallery of bright graffiti art because of the efforts of students and administrators.
A small group of faculty and students gathered Thursday to unveil a series of graffiti paintings lining the sides of a temporary construction tunnel that serves as the entrance to the School of Public Health.
Recent construction at the school led some students and staff to feel the need for a better aesthetic.
“A lot of students feel that our school (building) was a little bit lacking in the beauty department,” said Harmony Larson, a second-year graduate student in environmental health sciences who helped organize the project. “It kind of fell into our laps that there was this very utilitarian, very fair construction tunnel that opened up, and the school administration asked us if we were interested in painting a mural for it.”
The project resulted in several murals, including images of a woman running, a cartoon heart monitor and a welcome sign.
When Larson started working on the project last quarter, she approached her brother to help paint the murals. He was deployed in Afghanistan, so he suggested she work with two of his friends instead.
Adam Talan, a 21-year-old student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and one of the two artists, said brainstorming sessions with Larson provided him with his main ideas for the murals.
Talan said he used public health terms like “wellness” and “active,” which Larson recommended to him, to draw inspiration for the paintings.
The project cost almost $2,000 in funds provided by the Office of the Dean, said Larson, who serves as the co-president of UCLA’s Public Health Students Association.
The dean of the School of Public Health, Jody Heymann, said she was happy with the final result because the murals are inspirational for people entering the School of Public Health.
“I think it’s fantastic what they did,” Heymann said. “I think anybody who walks through here can see it just transforms how you feel about the entry to the school while we’re undergoing construction.”
Third-year environmental health science graduate student Sean Buono also expressed his support for the artwork, and said he feels it has changed the campus for the better.
“I absolutely loved it. It’s quite a transformation from when they first closed down the corridor and we had to start walking through this tunnel,” Buono said.
The tunnel – and the artwork on it – will come down in a year and a half when construction at the school ends. Talan, however, said he is not sad that his work is not permanent.
“It’s a temporary thing, you know,” Talan said. “I just wanted something while it was there to make it brighter, make people’s days, hopefully inspire them to do more things like this around school campuses.”
Even if the artwork can only be enjoyed for a short while, he said it might not be the last the campus sees of his art at the School of Public Health.
Dave Clark, School of Public Health assistant dean for student affairs, said he hopes that the artists can be convinced to paint work in a more permanent setting inside the school.
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