Art students paint mural to brighten TWU walkway

Students at Texas Woman’s University in Denton are bringing new life to a section of campus with a mural. And they are bringing their art lessons alive in the process.
DENTON, Texas – Students at Texas Woman’s University in Denton are bringing new life to a section of campus with a mural. And they are bringing their art lessons alive in the process.
An art professor is taking the concept of learning to heart when it comes to teaching his students how to make murals. And what started with a single permanent mural is only the beginning.
“We have the owl, which represents our mascot. We have flowers which represent different values,” said Brooke Delgado, a TWU senior.
Delgado is part of the team that designed the mural being painted near TWU’s admissions building, a major thoroughfare for the campus.
“You just can’t fathom how big it will be in the space,” she said.
Delgado said the stained glass at the school’s Little Chapel in the Woods helped inspire the mural because it was also created by students in the 1940s.
“What both of those things have in common is that they both tell stories,” she said.
The story at TWU is one of student contributions. It’s also a journey filled with challenges with making art that is on such a unique canvas.
“Usually, when you paint a mural, it’s just a flat wall. So, we had to make sure we had all the correct measurements for all the columns, the ceiling, and the stairs,” Delgado said.
“I found it important to kind of create a living legacy where students could come let’s say like 20 years from now and point out to their children, ‘I did this mural,’” said Giovanni Valderas, an assistant professor of painting and drawing.

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Valderas believes a mural can do so much more than provide beauty.
“It was kind of like this kind of plain boring space. And I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if we activated a space where people would want to stay and hang out, build camaraderie,” he said.
The students also got to learn about how to budget for the mural and deal with complications.
“It’s a challenge because this wall is like heavy stucco. The stucco is such a challenge because it typically just soaks up the paint,” Valderas said.
Sunflower Jasper is a disabled veteran working on her degree in art. She wants to use it to teach classes for veterans.
“It gives me a reason to keep on going and to try to be of any great influence I can to the young folks. I enjoy that as well. I have grown children and grandchildren,” she said.
She described the pop of color in the mural as a symbol of hope.
“We want people to be able to sit in this space if they want in between classes and just let their mood be changed by all the bright colors and imagery,” Delgado said.
The mural is set to be completed in less than two weeks.
Valderas plans to continue adding murals to the campus with his future classes.
FOX 4 reporter Lori Brown talked to several of the student artists and assistant  professor Giovanni Valderas to gather details for this story.