Originally published Friday, October 20, 2006
Updated Friday, October 20, 2006 The three join 26 other historic and fictitious heroes depicted Last Supper-style on five concrete panels at the edge of the high school's outdoor eating area in the middle of campus.
"Since this is a covered eating area, we had this idea of the Last Supper," said Ray Vasquez, the school art teacher who oversaw the project, which began a year ago. "We thought 'Which heroes would we want to sit with at lunch who inspire us?
' "
The mural, which was finished before the start of classes this fall, vaguely resembles Da Vinci's famous 15th-century painting by showing the figures sitting at a red-cloth-covered dining table.
Each figure gazes toward the viewer, with a name plate for identity. So far, the vibrant mural has been a conversation piece for students and administrators, especially after a student misspelled Gandhi's name.
The mistake will be corrected, school administrators said. "That was one kid's job where I guess he forgot that part," Vasquez said, when asked if someone checked the spellings of the names.
Instead of Jesus and his disciples, the murals show such well-known figures as founding father Thomas Jefferson, Lakers point guard Magic Johnson, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
, "Star Wars" philosopher Jedi Knight Yoda and martial arts star Bruce Lee.
Vasquez and the students initially planned to include controversial South American revolutionary Che Guevara, but reversed course when several teachers complained about the image.
So the figures would be easily identifiable, Vasquez's art students added objects with many of the figures.
Kahlo, for example, sits with her scrunched facial expression and a paint brush. Lee, sporting a grimace, holds nunchucks. A dish of grapes sits in front of Latino labor activist Cesar Chavez, as a reminder of the 1968 boycott of table grapes that brought about better working conditions for farm laborers.
Gandhi (identified in the mural as "Ghani") holds -- without any particular explanation -- several bamboo shoots.
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