Youth served by Stop the Violence's after-school programs pose in front of the new mural on the side of their building at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Tuesday, April 13. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

Jeanette Richardson Parks, executive director of the Arts Council of Kern, introduces muralist Thomas Lucero, a former tagger who now makes public art ligitimately. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

The new mural at Stop the Violence depicts a graduate triumphing over the influences of gangs and violence. The mural is by Thomas Lucero and Sebastian Murales. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

By Jennifer Baldwin

Thomas Lucero was an artist without an outlet. In order to show his art to an audience, he turned to graffiti.

“I started doing graffiti when I was 15,” said Lucero, now 30. “Then I got caught.”

But the arrest was a blessing. Mitch Galland with the Bakersfield Police Department gave him a choice.

“He said, ‘You can keep doing graffiti and go to jail’ or he would help me do stuff legitimately,” Lucero said.

Tuesday, Lucero stood next to Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall as they helped pull a tarp off the side of a building in East Bakersfield, unveiling the artist’s latest work as a public muralist.

“Fighting graffiti is going to take one person at a time, one neighborhood at a time,” said Jeanette Richardson Parks, executive director of the Arts Council of Kern, as she introduced Lucero at the podium.

The mural, which now graces the side of the Stop the Violence headquarters at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, is part of a growing partnership among several community groups to combat graffiti with art.

At the press conference Tuesday, Lucero described his inspiration for the mural, which depicts triumph of a school graduate over the influence of gangs and violence.

“For this design, I kept it simple for the kids. It’s more colorful, with a graffiti twist but legitimately. I thought the kids would like it more with the cartoon-type characters,” Lucero said.

The artist worked together with another local muralist, Sebastian Murales, who was not able to attend the unveiling. Their next goal is to continue the mural around the entire cinder-block building with the help of the youths involved in Stop the Violence’s after-school program.

Art therapist Judith Campanero has been teaching art classes to the kids twice a week, not only to teach them painting techniques but also to empower them with the confidence to participate in the project.

“Mostly we’re learning to believe in ourselves, to be empowered and know we can do anything,” Campanero said. “On the first day, a lot of them said, ‘I don’t know how. I can’t do it.’ Now, it’s ‘What do we get to paint today?’”

Marlenia Milburn, 14, proudly points out a painting of sunflowers she made in the class. She says she was one of those who wanted to give up, but that Campanero encouraged her to keep trying.

“I think (painting) is pretty nice,” she said. “It’s a way to express yourself.”

And that is the whole point of the anti-graffiti movement, Richardson Parks said. She showed photos of the skate park in Arvin, where one year ago artists painted murals to cover up graffiti. Today, the skate park ramps are worn from use, but show no signs of vandalism.

“Here is a skate park that used to be covered in graffiti,” she said. “This shows murals can help eliminate graffiti.”

She also announced the next mural at Stop the Violence and the ongoing signal box mural project in downtown Bakersfield would be funded by a grant from the Table Grape Commission – the newest partner in the public mural project.

Other partners include the Bakersfield Police Department’s Anti-Gang Unit, city and county parks and recreation departments, the anti-gang consortium Project 180, the Boys and Girls Club, Garden Pathways, Stop the Violence, Police Activities League and Keep Bakersfield Beautiful.

Tony Martinez, with the Bakersfield Police Department, underlined an economic benefit as well as a social benefit to the mural project.

“I look at this anti-graffiti program and I see literally the millions of dollars it could save us. It has been reported that we spend $345 million in California (to fight graffiti) and $16 billion in the nation. This is money that can be used in other positive ways in our community,” he said.

To report graffiti in Bakersfield, call 661-32-ERASE or report online at www.BakersfieldGraffiti.us.

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