project overview
INTERIOR MURALS | PORTER-LEATH EARLY CHILDHOOD ACADEMY
Rendering of the new facility
The Porter-Leath & University of Memphis Early Childhood Academy at Orange Mound is a state-of-the-art preschool and teacher training institute that has established a continuum of early childhood education that defines and promotes excellence for young children and their families.
The Academy provides comprehensive early childhood education and support services for 288 children in 18 classrooms for children ages 6 weeks through 5 years old. Designed by early learning facility specialist, RDG Planning and Design, the 38,000-square-foot facility weaves local culture, history and geography into safe, inviting spaces that encourage play and exploration. Its child-friendly architecture utilizes natural light, lush landscapes and bright colors that enrich children’s learning opportunities. The site design has been inspired by the community and neighborhood traditions of Orange Mound. Through intentional design, the space should evoke feelings of community and home with unique features like the addition of a front-porch façade on each classroom that opens into a natural playscape designed to promote play-based learning.
Its “Main Street” lobby now features murals by artists Daria Davis, Juan Rojo, and Sarai Payne whose designs were selected through a call to artists hosted in partnership with UAC and TONE.
Each artist was tasked with creating a design that included bright, colorful and engaging images that spoke to the impact the space will have upon future generations. Each artist interpreted this differently incorporating reference to historic places, events and/or people and highlighting the power of coming together for a common good as demonstrated by the partnerships behind The Academy. Their designs evoke a sense of home and add warmth to “Main Street” lobby as its been affectionately named.
Daria Davis mural design features imagery of significance to the Orange Mound community.
“My mural features a lot of Orange Mound symbolism, including the church on the right that my great great grandfather, John Markham, helped found.”
“One of the ideas behind the design for my mural was the impact of a helping hand; people coming together for the greater good to lend resources, positivity, mentorship, and anything else that can lessen everyone’s load. When I think about the impact the Porter-Leath Early Childhood Academy will have, I instantly think about the generations of kids who will be positively impacted by the center. The kids in the middle of the mural represent past and future generations coming together to make good happen within the neighborhood. Their hands meet. Connecting one another. Behind their hands is a burst of sunshine representing a new day and a bright future.”
Daria Davis
Juan Rojo
“The colors that seem to come from the children can be understood as their energy, interests, and dreams...”
“For this mural concept the background and figures were painted with acrylic paint in a small piece of politab, and the rest of the designs were drawn digitally on top. All the elements were painted manually, some with acrylic and brushes and others using stencils and spray paint, creating a contrast between an organic and painterly approach and more graphic and flat elements. To create this image I used images of real children that have attended or are currently enrolled at Porter-Leath. The colors that seem to come from the children can be understood as their energy, interests, and dreams free flowing and expanding round their clothes, hair, toys as they are playing.”
Juan Rojo
“The families also represents what can happen when people choose to come together; healthy love happens and things will grow, bloom, and continue to thrive”
Blossoming of Love(Community) | Sarai Payne
“When I created this mural, I was thinking about what I felt our communities needed, and outside of other OBVIOUS things, I kept thinking about love, respect, things of that nature. Amazing things can blossom from love, and I feel that with love also that’s how communities are built, with love, respect, etc. The flowers and greenery represent what can happen when you pour into something; they thrive and bloom. The families also represents what can happen when people choose to come together; healthy love happens and things will grow, bloom, and continue to thrive.”
Sarai Payne
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Daria Davis
Juan Rojo
Sarai Payne
Daria Davis is an artist and designer, born and raised in Memphis, TN. She’s a graduate of Jackson State University and the University of Memphis where she received a BA & MFA in Graphic Design. Her current design focus is digital design & animation. Her art focus is painting and illustration. Her illustration style combines both painting background with more technical aspects of graphic design. She often uses bold colors and organic shapes from stories or moments observed each day.
Juan Rojo was born in Valladolid, Spain in 1977. He graduated from the University of Salamanca (Spain) with a degree in Fine Arts and obtained his Masters degree in painting and video at the University of Maryland, College Park. Rojo uses painting, video, photography and printmaking to call into question traditions of representation and conventions of the depiction of women. He creates tumultuous wrestling matches between representation and abstraction, between contemporary fragmentation and historical representation, and between accepted heights of taste and intoxicating trips of high pitch colors.
Sarai Payne is a multi-disciplinary artist from Memphis, TN who specializes in digital collages, mix media art, illustrations, and graphic design. She enjoys using her skills to showcase her thoughts, emotions, fantasies, and random ideas in various mediums. Her work often includes bold colors, butterflies, and flowers as symbols of blooming and soaring high despite the odds.
