Inspire One Mural Project: Bringing Some Color to San José

The Inspire One mural project came together through the creative minds of Adrian Avila of Silicon Valley De-Bug and Samuel Rodriguez of Shorty Fatz. The two community based artist teamed up with a purpose to bring inspiration in an artistic form to neighborhoods throughout San Jose’s communities.

Their mission is to provide communities facing hardships with a painted one-word message that is meant to inspire and instill pride in their daily lives. The message is agreed upon by the people who live in the neighborhood and is provided to the community by funded grants and donations.

Adrian Avila, creator of the project explains his inspiration for the campaign, “I wanted youth in San Jose to have their own visual space in the city and to bring a painted colorful message to inspire their life, especially in these times.”

Both artists have recognized that youth are growing up facing great hardships during our tough economic crisis. On their journey to fulfill their mission, Adrian and Samuel had the opportunity to serve a local San Jose community in their launch of the project. For two weeks Samuel and Adrian worked painting and gathering community input to incorporate in their artwork.

The people of the Gardner community stopped by to visit the artists and watch a surface in their community transform into a bright, inspirational message. Both artists were pleased to be welcomed by the people and acknowledged by their efforts. People donated their time and knowledge of the neighborhood’s history as they painted.

Children picked up brushes and took part in painting the mural. Many young children walked by and asked what the word inspire meant and the artists were more then happy to have a conversation with those inquiring about the mural.

The launch of the campaign was funded in part through a grant by MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Initiative), and also funded by Silicon Valley De-Bug. The Inspire mural is located on the surface of Gardner Market on the corner of Delmas and Virginia in West San Jose.