MONAHANS, Texas — Here in West Texas, we're used to our cities and landscapes being colored varying shades of dusty brown, with a little splash of green. However, a group of Monahans students are working to change that.
"An opportunity for our students to go around town and possibly paint murals around the town,” said Lindsey Balderez, the Director at the Transformative Leadership Academy. “That's something that multiple people have been mentioning for a long time. A way to add some color and excitement into our downtown area."
She's working alongside her students to help expand their city's color palette. As part of their schooling, the students drew mural designs on paper, and Lindsey and the teachers at TLA helped bring their ideas to life.
"It was a year-long process of them brainstorming ideas and seeing what really captures the idea of the school – Transformative Leadership Academy – the tree is really significant to us,” Balderez said. “One of our mottos is 'keep growing.' They also really liked the idea of potentially having a swing on it so you could stand up against it and do a selfie. So we really liked the Instagram selfie mural movement and they wanted to get into that. And so we tossed around several different ideas and they sketched out several different things and this was really the final thing that we wanted to highlight the sunset because that's a huge thing in West Texas, and some of the sandhills but then bring in those bright colors and the tree was ultimately the main focus for the mural.”
The mural isn't done quite yet. The artist, Alessi Agundis, still has a few touch ups to do.
"It was this tree with their mission words in the trunk and that's what I'll be working on this week," Agundis said.
And this isn't the only mural. Both Lindsey and Alessi tell me the plan is to put up at least one mural a month, so that by this time next year, Monahans will have 10 to 12 colorful attractions.
A project spearheaded by students to give color to their hometown.
"It was completely the kids,” Agundis told me with pride. “It was their idea."
And to serve as a reminder for all of us, no matter where we are, to embrace the place we're in.