Sírvales

Themes: education, children, mentorship

Sírvales was painted by Jeff Zimmerman in 2005. A sea of blue scaling the length of the building, the work instantly captures viewers’ attention with the water stream that cascades from the hands at the top of it. There are eight portraits in the work, four adults and four children – a principal, teachers, and students from St. Pius V School in Pilsen. From the mouths of the adults emanates speech bubbles which lack text, leaving their conversation to the viewers’ imagination. What do you think that they could be talking about? Below the cupped hands, there is a red apple which is the source of golden rays that stretch across the background of the entire work. What do you think this apple could symbolize? Perhaps it can be associated with education, but if we harken back to the title of the work, Sírvales, this translates to “serve them.” There is a hierarchy within the painting which might imply how this should be done, from the cupped hands, down to the teachers, down to the students as the splashing water begins to settle. In the context of a work featuring community members from a local Catholic institution, everything can have a dual meaning. The hands could be Jesus’, the water symbolizing the life which also physically hydrates these figures, the apple reminding us of the original sin in the Garden of Eden. The interpretation always depends on you, the viewer, and how you see these elements working together in the mural. So what do you think?

Description by Angela Rogers.