Sunnyside sends a surprise message with guerrilla art “We are One!”

If there is one thing students want to tell the world today, it’s this: “The magic is in the message.”

On Friday in many high schools in the central San Joaquin Valley and nationwise that observed the National School Walkout, the conversation was all about the dark side of today’s schools, students leaving school to demand increased safety, and putting a stop to gun violence.

At Fresno’s Sunnyside High School, the message for several days has been different. Their campus carries a message designed to be neither confrontational nor controversial. Many of the students come from neighborhoods that are struggling already with gang violence, family crises, immigration fears. For them, they look to school as a place where young people can find friends and support from people who want to help them create a good future.

A bold batch of classes this year decided their message would celebrate their school campus, their diversity, their humanity and their unity. “We are One” was their motto. They chose to spread joy because “that’s what everyone needs,” according to their teacher, Tamela Ryatt.

And for anyone flying over the school or passing by the campus, there was no missing it. If you are wondering who is in that school, and what they are about, they’ll tell you in the biggest way possible. With their faces 20 feet tall. In what their teacher says may be the largest photo art installation in the country, 5,000 square feet of photo murals were pasted across their campus.

The Parisian artist JR says “Art should surprise!” and so they decided to surprise the community with a massive message that could not be missed. When the students arrive, when the cars drive by, when planes fly above – surprise – they saw themselves and their friends and the writing was on the wall!

These were not just the “usual suspects,” gifted athletes and straight-A students, but many – any – student, teacher or staff member at the school could be around the next corner.

The idea began in an unlikely place, in Paris, with an artist who just goes by JR, with a determined teacher Tamela Ryatt and her faithful team of believers.

Ryatt introduced her students to JR’s work through a TED Talk called “My wish: Use art to turn the world inside out.” It has had 2,702,599 viewers. JR does giant photo illustrations around the world. A big city water tower, for example, may have a photo of a person’s giant eyeball on it. He covered every roof in one city with photos. He’s shocking and uses his camera “to show the world its true face.” Check out his film “Faces Places.”

The Sunnyside students figured, well, if he can do that with an entire city, why can’t we do it with our school?

Fortunately, they have a multitalented, obsessive-compulsive Type A teacher in Ryatt, who asks the same kinds of questions. Well, why not? Now that may sound super duper, but that’s not an easy personality to have when you are working in academia. Remember schools are a land of dress codes, endless rules, “sign here” forms, parent permission slips, releases, budgets, requisition slips, contracts, handbooks and receipts.

Ryatt wrestled that monster to the ground with her enthusiasm and determination, and before you know it, a mighty team from the campus and even all over the city had moved in to help. The students’ talents and enthusiasm attracted more volunteers, supplies and fresh ideas.

Hundreds of portraits of the students, staff and faculty at school were taken. A math teacher, Brenda Stogdell, pitched in to teach students creative ways to measure formulas to calculate their supplies.

Administrators found a way when their critical printer broke down and had to be replaced. This team would not be stopped. Freelance photographer and Fresno City College instructor Diana Baldrica, “like a sister,” voluteered her time and talents to photograph the entire process for her longtime friend and colleague.

If you think art doesn’t require critical thinking, math, physics, chemistry, computer science, scale models, mapping, photography, think again. Here are some numbers for you: 5,000 square feet of paper, 90 gallons of wheat paste using 100 pounds of flour, 485 photo prints, 250-plus people involved, every printout numbered and mapped out and teams assigned to installations and even cleanup.

At the core, Ryatt has what she calls her relentless “mural maniacs:” Daisy Robles, Jasmine Barajas, Enrique Villanueva and Citlalic Tello. But she hopes to create a memory book for each and every person to have that recalls their great journey. Already there are souvenir T-shirts for the participants that someone funded as a gift. I could fill this page with names of people who have helped the students make this happen.

Say a prayer for each of them. I mean, have you ever tried to get your best friends together for lunch? Now multiply that by a thousand.

Through all this, it is not all happiness and light. This art is not permanent. By design, it lasts only a few weeks. And when it’s time is over, all the pictures will be pressure washed off the buildings.

“It’s hard,” Ryatt said. “ The work is intended to be temporal. However, when it begins to crack and peel the students are heartbroken. There are life lessons It is a life lessons that with time and weather all things change ... And there is very little in this life that lasts forever except our memories. We have created lasting memories for these kids and a sense of belonging.” Secondary is taking that message into the community by celebrating our diversity, our unity and our humanity.

Ryatt teaches them to be good with that. There is only so much real estate on campus and she wants them to have something to look forward to every year.

“If it was a painted mural, it would be permanant. The wheat paste project allows us too to grow and change, which is what we are all trying to do in our lives.”

But with the wheat paste, it’s gone. And next year’s students can figure out their own way to ... put the magic in the message.

This story was originally published April 24, 2018 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Sunnyside sends a surprise message with guerrilla art “We are One!”."