Mural well intended

Editor,

I would like to respond to your editorial on the mural project that WildPlaces is proposing for the library. Let me preface this with a disclaimer; I am a board member and long time volunteer for WildPlaces and a local educator. In the time that I have been working with them, WildPlaces has done nothing but create positive and constructive programs and events for local youth, highlighting the beauty and importance of the Tule River and Southern Sierra Nevada. If you look at the organization’s 11-year history you will see that the insinuation of an “inappropriate message” has no grounding in fact.

Instead of highlighting the disagreements in artistic choices, it would have been much more beneficial to highlight the fact that WildPlaces and the Library and Literacy Commission are working together as a team to make sure that this mural and what it represents is gifted to the community. Instead of stirring dissension, let’s look at the fact that various at-risk youth from Burton Pathways worked hard and with passion to contribute to the design.

When the final color design is made public on the seventh, the community will see themselves reflected in the representation; yes, even in the threatening carrot that created all the fuss, because, after all, the San Joaquin Valley is the bread basket of the nation, and growing carrots is part of our heritage. The land and people of this area are our lifeblood, our future, and honoring them with some well-intentioned and salubrious art is never inappropriate.

Instead of stirring controversy, I would love to see The Recorder use its position to foster the good will and collaboration that I have experienced first-hand in our community.

Nicole Celaya
Springville