Murals make a beautiful world

Dr Abe V Rotor
Inter school mural painting competition, Novaliches, Quezon City, sponsored by Asia Bank. Photo by Abe V Rotor, Pentax SPII, Takumar lens

Mural paintings lend new life to old buildings, dissolve fences into beautiful landscapes, bring down museum pieces to adorn walls and corridors, make greenery on otherwise dull and monotonous steel and concrete. They extend the view of our gardens, deepen our faith in prayer houses, create make-believe scenes in parks. Who would drive through a street mural? Who would not feel a sense of guilt on stepping a sidewalk mural? Close the traffic. Rain, rain, go away.

Murals are an extension of nature; they bridge the physical and the living world, man-made and natural. What better expression of the heart and soul in reverence to the Creator than the murals of Michelangelo and Rafael? What greater manifestation of man seeking freedom than Juan Luna's Spolarium and Picasso's Guernica?

Murals, murals, murals, everywhere. They urge the youth to speak out, the children to express pure thoughts and feelings we call innocence. They splash unashamedly the colors of love and loneliness. And hate and protest, dejection and abandonment. Murals are contagious, but you always recover at the end - healthier at that in the inside and with the world.

Murals take you to Gulliver's fantasy land. You can get ahead of NASA in reaching Mars and probing space. Who would throw dirt and deface a good mural. If one respects an empty wall, more so a mural. Beside a good mural you are a cultured person. Go to Cultural Center. Murals teach history and brings you back to your roots. Go to Smithsonian. Murals preserve culture, and speak of pride in it. Go to the Mexican Museum. Or Egyptian Museum. Our own National Museum.

Among these young artists are Degas, Rembrandt, Renoir, Amorsolo, Botong Francisco et al. I believe in re-incarnation. That's how the world goes round and around in perpetual rhythm and destiny guided by an unseen hand - the hand that guides another hand to make a beautiful mural. And a beautiful world.