Antioch University Seattle students, in partnership with New Horizons ministry, recently painted a mural of famous Seattleites as part of A&L-4800-13/14: Mural Painting, a fine arts class taught by award-winning artist Gabrielle Abbott as part of AUS’s BA in Liberal Studies program. Abbott is an internationally successful, Seattle-based artist who earned her BA in Liberal Arts from AUS in 2012. She followed her Antiochian BA with an MFA in Conceptual Art at the University of the Arts in London, UK, and prior to her time at Antioch she studied at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.
In her blog, Abbott thanks her spring 2018 mural painting Antioch students in the following way:
“I grew so close to my students during the process, and I’m so impressed by the way they HAULED ASS to get the painting done on schedule. If you’re reading this, Max Burke, Yana Dareva-Morison, Kim Hardman, Brie Kuhn, Mel Plant, Miranda Wolf, Denise Thetford and Kendra Young-Arrowood, thanks for the hard work! I loved getting to know all of you better on this project. I’m so pleased with how this wall turned out, and it was truly a community effort. Thanks to everyone who made this happen.”
The new mural is on display now in the New Horizons drop-in center, in Antioch’s neighborhood of Belltown, Seattle. New Horizons has helped connect homeless and at-risk youth with vital services since its inception in 1978.
The mural features seven “inspirational Seattleites, focusing on people of color and women” in the New Horizons buffet area. In Abbot’s words, “the seven individuals depicted were chosen for their lasting contributions to the social justice and artistic soul of Seattle.” The Seattleites featured in these portraits are Jimi Hendrix, Vi Hilbert, Bruce Lee, Chief Sealth, Bob Santos, Bertha Knight Landis, and Ernestine Anderson.
More information about the mural project’s creative process is available on Abbott’s blog entry about the piece, and more information about the mural itself, including mini-biographies of the Seattleites depicted, is available through Abbott’s portfolio page.
Interested in taking this classes like this? Learn more about our BA in Liberal Studies program!
