From a Barack Obama portrait to students on a tractor, murals spark creativity at MPS

It was the photo of the three kids on a tractor that struck Milwaukee artist Ken Brown.

The combination of youthful joy and mechanical practicality summed up the spirit and aims of Harold S. Vincent High School on Milwaukee's northwest side.

So, Brown used that photo, and others like it, as inspiration for six panels that were unveiled Friday.

"The students are in these murals," Brown said of his painted artwork that focuses on six disciplines at the school, from culinary art to animal science.

Brown's artistic vision is that the murals "empower the students to embrace their career paths."

The murals helped kick off Arts @ Large programs at Milwaukee Public Schools. Since 2001, the group has helped integrate arts into the classrooms at MPS.

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U.S. Bank and the Brewers Community Foundation also participated in the mural effort as MPS launched what it called "The Year of the Arts."

"We're going to maximize what we already do and and show off the good things that we do," said Deb Jolitz, manager of fine arts for MPS.

Daryl Burns, principal at Vincent, said the murals would help students visualize what paths they can take at the high school.

"More students will be engaged," he said.

Students will be able to use the murals to show off their work to the wider community. They'll also take pride of place inside the school.

"They show what we want to accomplish," said Deonte Rainey, a senior.

A second mural was unveiled at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education in Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood.

The large portrait of the former president carried a message: "We Manufacture Hope." It was painted by Reynaldo Hernandez, renowned for his murals as well as his work as a courtroom sketch artist.

"The students will see it every day," he said of the mural that will eventually hang above the school's north side entrance.

Hernandez said he had students work on the project, including members of the school's football team. Team members helped unveil the mural Friday.

"You get out of the work what you put in," Hernandez said of the importance of working with the students.

"We did it in a month," he said. "We played on the school colors. We didn't want to make Obama look too presidential. But we wanted to make him look dignified."

Hernandez hopes that the portrait doesn't just bring hope to the school, but also to the surrounding neighborhood.

A mural, he said, "is like an art gallery in the streets."