murals projects
[helen woodward animal center's humane education campus]
Helen Woodward Animal Center came to me needing custom art for their six habitat-themed classrooms for their state-of-the-art Humane Education Campus opening summer of 2025. The classroom themes are: Tundra, Jungle, Woodlands, Pets, Desert and Ocean. I wanted to ensure the children coming to these educational programs could learn and identify the proper animals from those ecosystems, so research was very crucial to my process. There are about 90 different animal species and a total of around 220 critters throughout the rooms. I based my art on the Sierra Nevadas, Sonoran and Saharan Deserts, Great Barrier Reef, Pacific Ocean, Canadian tundra, Antarctica, and the Amazon Rainforest. If you ever visit this facility, you will see that photos don't do it just, since each classroom feels immersive. I wish I was a kid coming here! Don't forget to look up when you see the classrooms, I also designed custom ceiling art! Once you are on campus, you can also see all of the signage that I also designed. If you include all of the project I had contributed into this campus, it was about a year of work. The wall art took about 3 months, but with edits it extended to about 6 months.
Jungle & Woodlands Rooms
Both of these rooms are connected and can be separated by an accordion style folding wall, as instructors choose. At first this room seemed like a challenge, but luckily the rooms are cut off by the track for the wall- so there was no need to make it a seamless design. I did have to keep in mind the colors and the water had to be the same.
The Jungle Room is based on the Amazon Rainforest and include the following species: Amazonian Tapirs, Blue Morpho Butterfly, Brindled Forest Gecko, Capybaras, Giant Otter, Green Anaconda, Green Iguana, Kinkajou, Poison Dart Frog, Scarlet Macaws, Spider Monkey, Three-Toed Sloth, and a Toco Toucan.
The Woodlands Room is based on the Sierra Nevada Mountains and include the following species: Acorn Woodpecker, American Pika, American Robin, Black Bears, California Mule Deer, California Newt, California Poppy, Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, Mountain Kingsnake, Mountain Lions, Northern Alligator Lizard, Peregrine Falcon, Racoon, Sierra Nevada Red Fox, Spotted Owl, Western Gray Squirrel, Western Pond Turtle, Western Tanager, and a Willow Flycatcher.