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Artist Kari Johnson painted a large, courtyard mural that takes viewers through the nine-year journey of students at Eugene public charter school.
One of the oldest public charter schools in Oregon is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a large piece of public art.
Local artist Kari Johnson recently spent three months painting a 130-foot-wide, 20-foot-high mural in the courtyard of The Village School in Eugene. Johnson, a self-taught artist, has painted more than 20 murals in the Eugene area, including a recent 25-foot-high mural at Lane Community College.
The Village School mural, which students and teachers will pass every day, shows a whimsical scene of children and teachers playing, learning, performing and interacting with different natural landscapes across Oregon, while also depicting the educational arc of students’ time at the school.
An alternative educational experience
The Village School is a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade public charter school that serves about 220 students.
It takes a different approach than traditional public schools. It focuses not only on academics but also creativity, community and time in nature. Teachers also have more autonomy over curriculum than in mainstream public schools.
Matthew Rutman, a fourth- and fifth-grade Village School teacher, has been at the school on and off for 20 years, since he began his teaching career. He appreciates the school’s emphasis on relationships and interconnectedness.
“It’s called The Village School, with the idea being that we were trying to hold the children like you would in a village, so everyone knows each other and interacts with each other,” Rutman said.
The school follows a curriculum that guides students through six- to eight-week units that focus on one theme, integrating all subjects from math and science to language arts. Rutman said teachers are empowered to create their own lessons that are “as artistic and imaginative as possible.”
A nine-year journey
Johnson’s mural reflects the school’s approach and takes the viewer through a student’s time at the Village School, illustrating the themes of beloved units in each grade, activities and rights of passage.
Roses are the bookends to the mural and to the student experience. On the far left of the long wall, pink and white roses bloom, representing the roses older students give to kindergarteners at a ceremony when they begin school. On the far right, red roses signify the roses that are given to eighth graders in a second rose ceremony as they are sent off to high school.
In between, the mural is full of people. Some frolic around a May pole, representing the school’s May pole celebration. Others throw javelins and wrestle, illustrating the Greek Games students participate in.
Students ride a Viking boat in the sky, which is ablaze in orange, pink and purple clouds. The flying boat represents the Norse mythology students learn and shows a broader theme of camaraderie and whimsy.
“The school is a boat and they’re all traveling together for a few years,” Johnson said.
Back on the ground, students sing and play the guitar and the recorder. Shakespeare is pictured holding a skull, referencing the play “Hamlet” and the students’ study of theater. An ensemble plays marimbas. A woman paints a picture of a Day of the Dead altar to Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
From creatures to coast
The mural is set in scenes of Oregon landscapes, reflecting the school’s heavy focus on the natural world. Arrowleaf balsamroot and camas carpet fields while ferns and rhododendrons line the banks of a stream. Spencer Butte and red rock formations rise up to show the state’s geological highlights.
Johnson placed animals in the scene that appear in the school’s curriculum, such as the “trickster” coyote that students learn about in folktales and the salmon and butterflies that students raise and release. She also incorporated animals that symbolize the school’s values. A large owl stands watch in the top left corner, representing wisdom.
“It’s sort of like this protector spirit,” Johnson said.
Johnson painted a flock of geese on the far right side of the mural to represent the community-centered, nonheirarchial nature of the school.
“Geese are such a cool group animal,” Johnson said. “They raise their children all together, and they take turns being the leader.”
The flock is pictured heading over the ocean, toward the edge of the mural, symbolizing the students leaving the safety of The Village School, Johnson said, but showing how they have each other as they go into adolescence.
