By Amanda Schwengel
When artist Carlos Frésquez began painting murals in Denver’s Chicano neighborhoods in the 1970s, he was looked down upon by the larger city community.
Today, murals are everywhere – and treasured throughout the city – as testimony to “what’s going on right now,” he said.
PHOTOS: Carlos Frésquez's Denver murals
“I call murals ‘walls with tongues’ because that’s what they’ve been all along,” he said. “It’s a way to instantly communicate and document a time. And voice your opinion.”
This summer as Frésquez, a Metropolitan State University of Denver alumnus and professor, embarked on teaching his popular Community Painting: The Mural course, he was forced to adapt the collaborative process to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here, Frésquez and his MSU Denver students show how they came together to paint a new mural while staying physically apart.
“It’s another way to learn and teach this process,” Frésquez said, “and it’s been a positive challenge. It forced me to rethink how to teach.”
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