Steve Della Maggiora
The Rainforest Mural
Silverado Middle School
About 14 feet high by 30 feet wide
Exterior latex
Copyright © 1996 by Steve Della Maggiora. Used with the artist's permission.
In the spring of 1996, I was contacted by Silverado Middle School art teacher Pat Bardwell. Mrs. Bardwell told me she was a sponsor of The Earth Club, a group of enterprising and idealistic seventh and eighth graders at the school. They had been busily collecting and cashing in aluminum cans since 1992 with the goal of doing some eco-conciousness raising at the school.
They adopted one small, quiet section of the campus where students often gather, and decided to make some improvements. They paid for the woodshop to build a beautiful bench. Landscaping was planned. And, for a rather non-descript wall, they decided to commission a rainforest mural. I eagerly agreed to paint them one.
Work began Memorial Day weekend, 1996; the wall was primed and the base colors painted. Gradually, over the next couple of weeks, the rainforest appeared. It was soon populated with Central and South American animals. As hoped, so that eighth grade club members could see it before graduating, it was completed on the last day of school.
Temptation
Acrylic 1991
About 24" by 36"
Copyright © 1991 by Steve Della Maggiora. Used with the artist's permission.
This began with a direct copy of my face from an accidental video shot. The light on my face reminded me of the sesame seeds on a hamburger bun - hence, the hamburger. The space left over resembled a stealth fighter, and the Gulf War was about to begin, so I put one in, and then a couple of B-1's for good measure. The painting was taken over by my fascination with weapons of destruction, along with the temptation of other things that I like that are not that good for me, like hamburgers and pizza, and other things that are presented as a constant temptation in our culture, like TV and cigarettes, and politics in general. Only a smattering of M&M's were needed to tie it all together.
Koresh
Acrylic 1993
About 18" by 24"
Copyright © 1993 by Steve Della Maggiora. Used with the artist's permission.
A photo spread in a news magazine contained all the ingredients of a really bad taste cigarette ad. (Is there such a thing as a good taste cigarette ad?) All that was left was to put it together with a fake box of Branch Davidians and paint it.
You may contact the artist at his website: www.svn.net/artguy
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