Students of El Camino High School, led by George Papciak, 1994
on the east side of the alley between Ditmar and Freeman, north of Mission Avenue
📸 2014 © Brigid Parsons
Newspaper article
North County Times
June 13, 1994
Students motivated by art
by Shannon Brady
Oceanside - Rays from a street lamp reflect atop the bald, 8-foot-tall, priestly specter affront a mission, in an alley between Ditmar and Freeman. Only the priest never moves; he is part of a mural project by El Camino High School.
George Papciak, art teacher and project coordinator, chose the reproduction of the Rev. O'Keefe to watch over the west side of the mural. "I chose to do a history of Oceanside and started with O'Keefe and the mission to symbolize a large part of the city's foundation," Papciak said.
The project began with Oceanside's Day of Art two months ago. The Garden Cafe, off of Mission Avenue, donated a wall for a mural. Sherman Williams Inc. donated the paint and Papciak gathered the students. Ever since then, young artists have volunteered their time and talent every Saturday to paint the 100-foot-by-14-foot mural. "When I first saw these kids I thought 'Oh no, gang people'", said Sharon Bourbeau, coach operator for North County Transit District. "Then my son told me about it. He's going to summer school to stay in his (Papciak's) art class."
The mural is based in browns and beiges to give the impression of an old photograph. A blue sky and hints of color turn it into a dubbed photo. "It looks better than I expected," said 17-year-old Sara Jacobs. Papciek chose photographs from the history of Oceanside archives to combine and scale up for the mural. Moving east from the priest, fishers scramble into a dory, a small flat-bottomed boat. "People used to fish right off the coast of Oceanside like that," Papciak said. Beside the boat is an old steel pier beneath three stoic citizens. Then the not-yet-painted, but outlined, Marines poise full force in remembrance of their march into Camp Pendleton in 1942. The final depiction, to be finished, is one of the first cars in Oceanside with western-style buildings in the background. "I think the man in the car was one of the first doctors in Oceanside," said Papciak.
A motivation besides pure artistic expression is "to show the community that the kids at El Camino can do really positive things," said Papciak. "We have all different races together volunteering their time. A lot of negative publicity hits the kids here, but there are some wonderful students who are giving up every Saturday for this mural." The mural is planned to be finished by September.
"We already had two people offer us other walls during the Day of Art," said Papciak. "If there is no graffiti and the city gets a positive response, chances are favorable for future murals."