Noticiero Movil

Muralist Rafael Blanco poses for a photo in front of his unfinished mural.University alumnus Rafael Blanco came to the United States from Spain and currently resides outside of Chicago. He completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University in 2013 and recently worked on two murals on the University campus to highlight and underscore diversity. Photo courtesy of UNR

UNR’S mural project completed, artist Rafael Blanco describes the process

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Braving Nevada’s dry heat and temperatures reaching the upper 90s, muralist Rafael Blanco painted two murals for the University of Nevada, Reno which will be revealed to students upon returning for the fall 2020 semester.

From June 17 to July 14, Blanco painted. He woke up early and retired late into the evenings, some days pulling all-nighters to get the murals done on time.

Blanco started with the Sierra Hall mural located on the east-facing façade of the building. People can view this mural driving down Virginia Street, with six individuals representing diversity in race, ethnicity and religion. Blanco used a vivid color palette to show the differences and commonalities of humanity.

“Many things have inspired me, one of the main things is humanity,” Blanco said. “I was trying to show brightness with the colors, we are trying to celebrate our differences and our commonalities.”

The Sierra Hall mural also features a quote from Audre Lorde saying, “… it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence.”

To read the entire article, please visit The Nevada Sagebrush.

The portion of this story was shared with permission from The Nevada Sagebrush. The original version was written by Emilie Rodriguez and published on July 23.