Leonel Iribarren paints of future past
Acrylic Wisdom
Acrylic Wisdom
When Iribarren works on a mural, there is nothing superfluous. While he shows the students how to paint a mural, he is also educating them about people,
about history, about each other. Like the surface of his mural, everything is purposeful and imbued with meaning. While, on the surface, the mural is beautiful
to look at, it also runs deep with education nuggets.
About five years ago, Iribarren and his wife Norma moved back to Chile after they retired. But life intervened to bring him back to Madison and the
opportunity to paint a mural once again. When he was visiting family in Madison, Iribarren was stricken ill and needed an emergency operation on his aorta.
With the coaxing of his family, his stay in Madison became permanent.
Unbeknownst to Iribarren, Black Hawk’s Pat Gardner began to plan for another mural and people were thinking about Iribarren because of the tenth
anniversary of the first mural. “It was a coincidence,” Iribarren said. “There was a new principal and different students. But I worked with Pat Gardner who was
here ten years ago. She said ‘Leo, we have an idea that would also involve students. It would be a mural in another place.’”
Over the course of approximately nine months, Iribarren and his 12 student protégés created the mural “Past, Present, Future … Think’ at the main
entrance to Black Hawk. “We used the same technique and methodology that we used ten years ago,” Iribarren said. “All of the students met so I could explain
the idea. But the topic was different. It was about the past, the present, the future and thinking. It was about knowledge and education. We involved the
students. We discussed things first with the teacher and the students. We got the students thinking. Everyone had a say in what we were going to do.”
While the methodology was the same, the present is never the same as the past. Many things had changed in the intervening ten years. “Ten years ago,
we didn’t use the computer,” Iribarren said. “Everyone used books for research. But right now, the students look at the computer. And also in ten years, in terms
of technology, everything is quicker and advancing. Everything from the past has changed. Now the concepts for mathematics, science or history are different.
They have changed. Every minute, when we look at the computer, there is so much information. Ten years ago, we were waiting for new books and television.
Now everything happens very quickly.”
And on some levels, the rapid advance of technology and science blurs the distinctions between past, present and future. Like his other murals, nothing is
wasted in this mural. While it is beautiful to behold, there are layers upon layers of meaning with every icon representing something. So while the mural
overall represents the linear aspects of time, it also shows that sometimes, the future shows up in the past and vice versa. “Sometime things that appeared in
the past also appear in the present and the future, for example the robot,” Iribarren said. “Da Vinci designed a robot. And that is in the past, but also in the
present and the future. Honda Corporation created a robot that is similar to humans except it doesn’t speak. Here is the past robot and the present science
fiction robot. And it is also in the future with a robot by Isaac Asimov. Asimov was the author of the book that they made the movie about. And there was a
robot that was a conductor of an orchestra in Michigan last May. We are living in the future while it is also the present. In the mural, something from the past
also appears in the future.”
The mural is filled with little mind twisters such as the robot. “We went to Chichen Itza,” Iribarren recalled. “One of the inscriptions from there looks like an
astronaut to me. But this is the past, 2,000 years ago. But this is the future. This is when I said we are living in the second future.” He also pointed out Egyptian
hieroglyphics that resembled helicopters or an Inca inscription that looked like an x-ray. The point Iribarren is making is that perhaps life is like a sense of déjà
vue, perhaps we — or at least our technology — has been here before. It is no accident that Iribarren has placed Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ on the mural.
All details of the mural are designed to give beauty to the eye and a challenge to the mind. “My idea is to open minds to education,” Iribarren exclaimed.
“Education is very important. The mural is for education, not decoration. It is for thinking and knowledge.” The students from Black Hawk Middle School will
have something to ponder for a generation to come.
Iribarren also found that doing the mural was good therapy that helped him recover from his aorta surgery and is interested in doing another. Iribarren can
be reached by e-mailing him at leonorma05@yahoo.com.
about history, about each other. Like the surface of his mural, everything is purposeful and imbued with meaning. While, on the surface, the mural is beautiful
to look at, it also runs deep with education nuggets.
About five years ago, Iribarren and his wife Norma moved back to Chile after they retired. But life intervened to bring him back to Madison and the
opportunity to paint a mural once again. When he was visiting family in Madison, Iribarren was stricken ill and needed an emergency operation on his aorta.
With the coaxing of his family, his stay in Madison became permanent.
Unbeknownst to Iribarren, Black Hawk’s Pat Gardner began to plan for another mural and people were thinking about Iribarren because of the tenth
anniversary of the first mural. “It was a coincidence,” Iribarren said. “There was a new principal and different students. But I worked with Pat Gardner who was
here ten years ago. She said ‘Leo, we have an idea that would also involve students. It would be a mural in another place.’”
Over the course of approximately nine months, Iribarren and his 12 student protégés created the mural “Past, Present, Future … Think’ at the main
entrance to Black Hawk. “We used the same technique and methodology that we used ten years ago,” Iribarren said. “All of the students met so I could explain
the idea. But the topic was different. It was about the past, the present, the future and thinking. It was about knowledge and education. We involved the
students. We discussed things first with the teacher and the students. We got the students thinking. Everyone had a say in what we were going to do.”
While the methodology was the same, the present is never the same as the past. Many things had changed in the intervening ten years. “Ten years ago,
we didn’t use the computer,” Iribarren said. “Everyone used books for research. But right now, the students look at the computer. And also in ten years, in terms
of technology, everything is quicker and advancing. Everything from the past has changed. Now the concepts for mathematics, science or history are different.
They have changed. Every minute, when we look at the computer, there is so much information. Ten years ago, we were waiting for new books and television.
Now everything happens very quickly.”
And on some levels, the rapid advance of technology and science blurs the distinctions between past, present and future. Like his other murals, nothing is
wasted in this mural. While it is beautiful to behold, there are layers upon layers of meaning with every icon representing something. So while the mural
overall represents the linear aspects of time, it also shows that sometimes, the future shows up in the past and vice versa. “Sometime things that appeared in
the past also appear in the present and the future, for example the robot,” Iribarren said. “Da Vinci designed a robot. And that is in the past, but also in the
present and the future. Honda Corporation created a robot that is similar to humans except it doesn’t speak. Here is the past robot and the present science
fiction robot. And it is also in the future with a robot by Isaac Asimov. Asimov was the author of the book that they made the movie about. And there was a
robot that was a conductor of an orchestra in Michigan last May. We are living in the future while it is also the present. In the mural, something from the past
also appears in the future.”
The mural is filled with little mind twisters such as the robot. “We went to Chichen Itza,” Iribarren recalled. “One of the inscriptions from there looks like an
astronaut to me. But this is the past, 2,000 years ago. But this is the future. This is when I said we are living in the second future.” He also pointed out Egyptian
hieroglyphics that resembled helicopters or an Inca inscription that looked like an x-ray. The point Iribarren is making is that perhaps life is like a sense of déjà
vue, perhaps we — or at least our technology — has been here before. It is no accident that Iribarren has placed Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ on the mural.
All details of the mural are designed to give beauty to the eye and a challenge to the mind. “My idea is to open minds to education,” Iribarren exclaimed.
“Education is very important. The mural is for education, not decoration. It is for thinking and knowledge.” The students from Black Hawk Middle School will
have something to ponder for a generation to come.
Iribarren also found that doing the mural was good therapy that helped him recover from his aorta surgery and is interested in doing another. Iribarren can
be reached by e-mailing him at leonorma05@yahoo.com.
Chilean-born artist Leonel Iribarren and the mural project he
directed at Black Hawk Middle School
directed at Black Hawk Middle School
By Jonathan Gramling
“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful
More simple or more direct than does,
Nature because in her invention,
Nothing is lacking, and Nothing is superfluous.”
-- Leonardo da Vinci
Leonel Iribarren, a Chilean-born artist and educator, has taken da Vinci’s words to heart. Ten
years ago when Iribarren was the administrator of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s
migrant education program, he worked with a group of 25 students at Black Hawk Middle School
to create the mural “One School, Many Cultures.”
“In this school they had migrant students,” Irribarren said with the mural watching over us
nearby in the school’s library. “And it was interesting to involve the migrant children with other
children from different nationalities. There are so many cultures at the school. And you see in
the mural different cultures. It was very interesting. And we emphasized Black Hawk because the
school is called Black Hawk Middle School. And the African American, Matthew Henson, helped
discover the North Pole. That was interesting to the African American students. It was all very
interesting.”
“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful
More simple or more direct than does,
Nature because in her invention,
Nothing is lacking, and Nothing is superfluous.”
-- Leonardo da Vinci
Leonel Iribarren, a Chilean-born artist and educator, has taken da Vinci’s words to heart. Ten
years ago when Iribarren was the administrator of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s
migrant education program, he worked with a group of 25 students at Black Hawk Middle School
to create the mural “One School, Many Cultures.”
“In this school they had migrant students,” Irribarren said with the mural watching over us
nearby in the school’s library. “And it was interesting to involve the migrant children with other
children from different nationalities. There are so many cultures at the school. And you see in
the mural different cultures. It was very interesting. And we emphasized Black Hawk because the
school is called Black Hawk Middle School. And the African American, Matthew Henson, helped
discover the North Pole. That was interesting to the African American students. It was all very
interesting.”