Mural project an education, job for Kent-Meridian students

As far as summer jobs go, getting paid to paint murals isn’t a bad way to make money.

“It’s pretty fun” said Anthony Rowe, 17, as he took a break from moving panels to be painted as part of a new West Hill mural he helped create.

Rowe is part of the King County Work Training Program, which has partnered with Kent Parks and Recreation to give 14 incoming high-school seniors an opportunity to receive job training and to work with a professional artist on two new murals being installed in Kent.

Each day, Rowe and 13 other Kent-Meridian High School students spend their mornings receiving job skills such as budgeting, time management, resume-writing and other important life tasks. Their afternoons are spent painting.

“They come in here and we do job readiness for them,” said Program Specialist Brian Rockwell, who runs the program for the city.

“It’s a work-training program so it’s getting us ready for future work,” Rowe said.

And yes, the students are paid for their time.

“It’s a great experience,” Rowe added. “A lot of people don’t get this opportunity.”

Each day begins with the training, including journaling about the project to help further develop writing skills.

In the afternoon, the program switches gears and the students embark on their mural project, working with professional artist Louis Chinn.

“They learned the process of painting a mural,” Rockwell said of the afternoon sessions.

So far this summer, the students – all of whom were recruited through K-M for the program – have completed the mural, which Chinn designed for the East Hill lot at the corner of S.E. 240th Street and 104th Avenue S.E. Chinn drew the original mural, which features circles turning to faces and back to circles to represent Kent’s diversity, which the kids then dutifully painted onto full-size panels that will hang in the lot.

Now, the focus of the program has shifted to the student-led mural portion, in which the students develop their own mural with Chinn’s help.

The student mural, which is still being designed, has a “Game of Life” theme, according to Shalon McAlister, 17, another member of the program.

“Now we have to design our own (mural) with the techniques (Chinn) taught us,” she said. The students picked the theme as well as developing each of the panels in their mural. The work will be unveiled Aug. 12 at Glen Nelson Park.

According to Rockwell, to create the student-led mural, the teens were broken into three teams: budget, proposal and logistics. Each team had to complete its own section of the project, including cost analysis, impact and the timeline for completion.

After presenting their mural to the Kent Arts Commission and getting an approval, work began on the actual painting.

For the students involved, it may be a job, but they do realize it’s a fun one.

“It’s a job, but it’s not a real job,” said McAlister with a smile. “It’s way more fun.”

McAlister said she has previously worked in retail sales and this was a much better way to make some extra money in the summer.

“I’d rather be doing this than anything else,” she said. “It’s way easier than other jobs.”

Chinn said he was excited to be part of the program because it gives the students a look at what it is like to be a real, working artist.

“They now know how I make my money,” he said. “It’s good to see them work firsthand with a professional artist.”

Rowe said the best part of his job is the “energy” everyone puts out but said the most difficult aspect was getting used to the drawing and painting and said the job may not be for everyone.

“You have to be a team player,” he said. “You have to be a patient person.”

More than anything though, Rowe said the top requirement for this type of summer work is a positive attitude.

“We always have something going on,” he said. “We’re having fun.”

The student-led mural, created and painted by members of the King County Work Training program, will be unveiled 10 a.m. Aug. 12 at Glenn Nelson Park, Military Road and South 268th Street.

Louis Chinn’s mural, located at the corner of Southeast 240th Street and 104th Avenue, was unveiled Aug.6.