6/17/2023 0 Comments Camp color war muralsBut recently, she won a grant for the project for $15,000 from the North Valley Community Foundation. "Do I talk a lot? Alright - well I need people to talk back to me, right? If I'm talking to you, it helps me because we need to communicate," she says.įor a while Mercer says she was buying the materials for the murals with just her own money. Students at Pine Ridge forget the Camp Fire and put their paint brushes to work. She's not just giving these kids paint brushes and walking away. "But yeah, this is fun."įun is clearly part of Mercer's mission as an artist. "It's awful and you don't learn anything, you just answer questions that they give you," he says. He said he initially had to stay in Yuba City for a while and do school online. He's staying in Magalia with his grandparents so he can be close to Pine Ridge. Mecham also lost his house in the Camp Fire. You have the sky and mountains and hot air balloons on the top, you have blue, red, orange and yellow, brown mountains," he says. "When you're driving on the road along old Skyway, it kind of looks like that. Ringel and her classmate, Judah Mecham, are painting a blue sky on the mural. "Cause you have all the tools, and then you have all your living stuff, and if you rub up against something, you can get everything all dirty because it's covered in grease." "All the tools are still in there 'cause my stepdad works on cars, so it's kinda tough," Ringel says. Since her house burned down, she, her mom, stepdad and 7-year-old brother have been living in a trailer inside her stepdad's shop. "We're on our property still, but everything's gone so it's kind of sad,” says 12-year-old Aleina Ringel of Magalia. Mercer lost her art studio in the Camp Fire. ![]() ![]() Pine Ridge is one of 11 schools where Mercer is painting murals with kids as part of her Butte County Art on Wheels program. Students display their mural that will eventually hang at the school. "I love it, it sounds like school," she says. "Another day a little bit above Paradise - that's what they call Magalia, a little bit above Paradise," Mercer says.Īs she walks onto the campus one recent gray, crisp morning, the sound of students buzzing is a welcome bit of normalcy. Mercer is known by many for her Key Project Tribute, where she collected house keys from Camp Fire survivors that will be used to create a memorial sculpture for the town once it's rebuilt.īut on this day, she is guiding some of the seventh graders as they paint a detachable mural that will ultimately hang at the school. Life is far from back to normal in Magalia, California, one of the communities hardest hit by the Camp Fire.īut nearly five months later, some routines are starting to fall back into place - like kids going to school.Īrtist Jessie Mercer is helping students at Pine Ridge School remember the ridge in a colorful way. ![]() (Courtesy of Jessie Mercer) This article is more than 4 years old. Artist Jessie Mercer shines some color at Pine Ridge School.
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