Panel 1: Bubble Girl --- Conceptually, the idea of a bubble girl was inspired by one of the community members that my partner and I surveyed. This individual spoke of the innocence that the children have whenever they go to the park and were happy to find that McNamara Park was reopening after several years of closure. It was a place for families to gather. I decided that using an innocent girl blowing bubbles would help to tie the panels together. In each bubble, we can find influential icons of the community that complemented the ethnicities of the area: Hispanic, Hmong, White, and African American. In this panel, we see Frida Kahlo, a famous hispanic female artist, as well as John Muir, the "Father of National Parks" as Merced is next to Yosemite National Park.
Panel 2: Migrant Farm Workers --- This panel was designed by two of my team members who felt passionate about their hispanic roots and wanted to help make tribute to the farmers who lived around the area. In this image, the migrate works are cultivating a fist that is predominately used to represent power and strength. In this case, my partners wanted to depict the hardwork that their hispanic counterparts do and that immigrant workers work long hours. It is this panel that inspired the cactus designs that you can see through out. I complemented the cactus with rose stencil concepts as it was one of the best representations of the hispanic community who all happened to have roses in their gardens. The bubbles also carry Hmong General Vang and Maya Angelou, the infamous author.
Panel 3: Break Away from Gun Violence --- This last panel was designed by the last two team members of my group and were inspired by the strong desire of the community to keep their children from joining gangs and to steer away from guns. They designed an eagle destroying hand guns. The eagle soars away from the background of the Yosemite mountain range and moves in a forward direction to represent the desire to move toward a future of freedom, justice, and strength.