MEADOW GARDEN
M
MURAL:
Liquid Paint
Ojai Valley News photos by Andra Belknap
From Andra Belknap, Ojai Valley News:
Meiners Oaks residents and visitors to the Ojai Meadows Preserve may have noticed Ventura artist M.B. Hanrahan hard at work on a mural outside Meiners Oaks Elementary School.
Though Hanrahan is doing the painting, the mural is the brainchild of Meiners Oaks students.
Students have studied Ojai's native flora and fauna as they work with teachers and administrators to transform portions of the schoolyard into a native garden.
Students selected plants and animals to be featured in the mural, said Meiners Oaks PTA President Gina Braget.
In July 2016, Braget recruited Hanrahan for the project.
“I was like, 'Oh, what's your budget?' and Gina said, 'Oh we don't have any budget right now, but we'll raise the money,'” recalled Hanrahan.
And raise the money they did. During a January penny drive Meiners Oaks students collected loose change to raise money for the $3,000 project.
“The kids went crazy for the penny drive,” said Braget. Students raised $1,500 by collecting loose change and bringing it to school.
Impressed by the students' effort, the PTA matched their $1,500 donation.
This wasn't the kids' first foray into fund raising.
“Last year we had a penny drive (to purchase) a hydration station. They raised $3,000, enough for two hydration stations,” said Braget.
...
Hanrahan said students have expressed a great deal of interest in her work, asking her to point out specific plants and animals.
The mural includes renditions of Matilija poppies, California poppies, lavender, sage, yucca, lupin and mustard flowers, in addition to owls, rabbits, bees, monarch butterflies and a mountain lion — the school's mascot.
“There's not a super realistic scale, but I like to think that it flows. I wanted to mix up the scale a little bit for artistic purposes, because the point is close observation of nature specific to this area,” said Hanrahan. “Kids are small, things look bigger to them.”