REDMOND —

Middle school students used their artistic abilities Saturday to transform three city electrical boxes into art.

The Out of the Box art project featured 16 students from Elton Gregory Middle School, who broke off into three groups to paint electrical boxes along U.S. Highway 97 near Baker Equipment, Sonic and Home Depot.

Redmond Committee for Arts in Public Places and the middle school hosted the event. The public arts committee hired Bend artist David Kinker to oversee the students’ work.

Kinker, who has painted murals at Tower Theatre, St. Charles Bend and McMenamins, said painting the plain, gray electrical boxes helps beautify the city, but also teaches the sixth-, seventh- and eighth- graders to feel ownership and pride in their work.

“Personally, I really, truly believe that adding art is valuable,” Kinker said. “You go into a hospital and you start adding art to the hospital, it feels like a healing place. I think that is true in public places as well.”

The theme of the artwork was transportation. Students painted bridges around the electrical box near Baker Equipment, and other students added a medieval theme to the Sonic electrical box and some UFOs on the Home Depot electrical box.

Cooper Garland, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, painted a side of the electrical box near Baker Equipment at the intersection of U.S. Highway 97 and NW Maple Avenue.

Garland added to the artwork by painting a bird and sharks in the water under the bridge.

“I think it’s pretty awesome that my artwork can put smiles on peoples’ faces,” he said.

To be a part of the project, the students had to write an essay about why they wanted to be involved.

Garland’s mother, Megan Garland, who stopped by Saturday morning to support her son, said the essay had to answer questions such as: What does art mean to you? And what does passion mean to you?

She was impressed with her son’s answers.

“His responses were just amazing about how art is about bringing enjoyment to others, and then he talked about passion being something that makes you feel like you can accomplish anything,” she said.

The public art committee has worked with other Redmond students on past projects, including the Yew Avenue Roundabout, the Highway 126 park tunnel mural and display tiles at Centennial Park.

Linda Gilmore Hill, chairwoman of the public arts committee, said a goal of the committee is to work with the local children.

“We needed another project where we worked with the youth,” Gilmore Hill said. “We have been seeing projects in other communities that have done the electrical boxes. We talked to the city, and they were all for it.”

Before painting the three electrical boxes, Kinker met with the students Wednesday to develop designs for the artwork. He taught the students about how to take artwork from a piece of paper and transfer it to a large canvas like an electrical box.

Kinker said it may take some time before the students realize what they have created — artwork that will be enjoyed by their community.

“They are going to get most of it as they walk away and reflect on what they did,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7820, 
kspurr@bendbulletin.com