Past and Future of OCSA Murals
James Yi
The murals in OCSA are mysterious objects. They certainly contribute to making the school feel like an art school, but how did they get there, and is OCSA even responsible for making them?
The many Tower murals are mostly courtesy of the old Visual Arts mural class. “Visual arts used to be located on the 6th floor,” said Paige Oden, director of Visual Arts. That was before OCSA acquired the VAC during the 2009-10 school year. “We had a master mural artist named Manuel Gonzales who led all the large murals in the Tower and I think a few in the Annex.” However, that only applies to the murals in the hallways. The director has no knowledge of the murals that are found in classrooms, such as in T305.
Neither the mural class nor Gonzalez presently exist at OCSA. Gonzalez retired in 2021. One of his latest projects is the koi fish painting on the DMS stairs, which he led with VA senior Miran Hassan in 2018.
Mural work still continues on without him. The OCSA painting in the VAC parking lot was proposed by the class of 2021, funded with the director’s help, and led by a painting teacher. “...[it] was a gift from our class of 2021. Those seniors came in on Friday afternoons and did all the work,” said Oden.
The OCSA murals made by various alumni. Photos by Lauren Kim.
Other murals are initiated by the director, who creates Google Classrooms for students interested in different projects. If a student wants to join a particular project, they can join the Google Classroom for that project.
In 2021, a mural was completed in the Source Mall in Buena Park accompanied by an essay written by CW student Isabel Hahn.
The most prominent mural is probably the giant parking lot mural, featuring Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez. Sadly, that particular mural is actually not the work of OCSA, but of OCEAA, OCSA’s neighbor.
More of OCSA’s own murals will be coming in the future. “There will be at least four or five new murals coming in the next, probably two or three years,” said Oden. They will be part of a larger beautification project and involve professional mural artists to “help [students] understand how to paint [a mural]” and how to make a living as a professional mural artist.