VILLA VIBES

The outdoors, sports, music and more—the mural at Villa Academy represents what students love about this PNW gem of a school.

Painted the summer of 2024, the mural was a gift to Villa from Girl Scout Troop 41536 (comprised of 8 girls in the 2023 graduating class). In addition to helping paint, the girls funded this tribute to their Alma Mater using money earned from 6 years of selling cookies.

The mural features the artistic vision of award-winning, Seattle-based fine artist and designer, Devi Brunsch.

The mural is painted on a 600 sq. foot concrete wall, as part of a covered basketball court used on campus for recess, rainy days, school dances, and events. The painted area spans 48 feet wide and 6 feet tall. It took approximately 4 weeks to paint, working around various schedules.

MEDIUM
The mural was painted using Behr latex outdoor paint & primer, and sealed with Behr Low-lustre concrete sealant. Minor detail work was done with Posca paint pens.

ART DESCRIPTION

Much like the school itself is anchored in its surrounding neighborhood and natural landscape, the word VILLA is proudly sitting in a Pacific Northwest/Seattle setting, surrounded by beautiful evergreen trees. Each letter in the word VILLA depicts a different component of the spirit of this magical school.

Expand below to read further descriptions about each part of the Villa Mural.

  • The word VILLA is nestled in a Pacific Northwest landscape representing both the natural beauty of the school's 31 acre campus and the supporting context of the Seattle community within which Villa resides. The Space Needle, Mount Rainier, and Lake Washington are depicted to the left, while Villa's resident Bald Eagle and a campus signpost are on the right.

  • Villa recently updated their mascot to the Voyagers. In honor of this change, the V depicts scenes and symbols that evoke a spirit of voyaging, exploration, and adventure. Whether students are building forts in the orchard, learning about astronomy at night on their class camping trip, sailing the Salish Sea on a field trip, or simply trekking to the shores of Lake Washington during Science class, "voyaging" is an ever-present theme in the curriculum of a Villa education.

  • At the root of Villa's education is the importance of developing strong character through engaging in community development, service, faith, and empathy. Students practice this in a variety of ways, such as learning to tend a garden and take care of Earth, hosting cultural events to celebrate one another's lineages, or giving back to the community within which they learn and live by hosting fundraisers and drives. The letter I in the mural depicts the importance of this aspect of the Villa education.

  • The first L represents the youthful spirit of sports, athletics, clubs and movement. Villa provides opportunities in a variety of extracurricular activities, and students participate in many CYO sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, and frisbee.

    It was important to the troop to have the basketball player represented as a girl in the mural, since multiple troop members excel in this sport, going on to play Varsity ball at their high schools.

  • The second letter L in the mural represents Villa's commitment to strong academic learning, project-based education, and intellectual curiosity. The school integrates a rich STEM education with history, literature, writing, religion, the outdoors, and more. Each child is given the support they need to blossom intellectuality as well as socially/emotionally. Students go on to prestigious high schools and universities, empowered with strong habits and a joy of learning cultivated during their time at Villa.

  • The A represents the strong emphasis on developing the arts in the children at Villa; whether by engaging in the visual arts and music as part of the core curriculum, or opting into extracurriculars like band, musical theater, and choir. Walk the halls of the school any day to see their commitment to integrating art into their coursework; represented by a bounty of student paintings, collage, pottery, illustration and more, carefully and lovingly curated on the walls of every floor.

    Depictions of a snare drum and a saxophone in the mural each celebrate musical passions of girls in the troop, one of whom went on to play in her high school drumline.