Octavia E. Butler Mural Honoring Sci-fi Genius...

11/28/2022

"A Lot has been going on over at the Washington STEAM Multilingual Academy since I painted their Octavia E. Butler mural for their Library in 2020! " -RQ

"Octavia E. Butler is one of the first African American women to be recognized in the science fiction genre.
She also exemplifies the integration of science with the arts and humanities, and the expression of STEAM-integrated learning. This mural makes someone with her genius relatable.
Middle school students (and really most people) can relate to the idea of feeling insecure or unmotivated when faced a large task, but you don’t have to be perfect to be great. Octavia Butler is proof that you can always get better, learn more, and achieve great things. She set a goal for herself and who she was going to become very early in her writing career, so we included statements from her notebooks in our mural to inspire our kids. You can set your sights on something and work towards it and actually realize it."
-Dr. Shannon Malone, Principal, Washington STEAM Multilingual Academy

First...

Their Library was named for their famous alumnus on September 8, 2022.

Washington STEAM Multilingual Academy renames library,
creates mural to honor famous alumna and prolific sci-fi writer!

Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD)
Board of Education
approved the school's proposal to rename their library in recognition of Octavia E. Butler.

Then...

on Augest 8, they had a Science fiction Festival
AND
Renamed the whole school
for Octavia E. Butler!

The Washington Steam Multilingual Academy will now be known as:
The Octavia E. Butler Magnet
(following the Board of Education’s unanimous approval in February 2022.)

Octavia E. Butler Magnet
(formerly Washington STEAM Multilingual Academy)
is a middle school serving students in grades 6-8.
Certified by the National Institute for STEM Education.
We provide a rigorous Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics integrated curriculum which helps our students to become technologically literate problem solvers, logical thinkers, and innovators.
The school is located at:
1505 North Marengo Avenue,
Pasadena, CA 91103.

And now!...

The New York Times has just printed an excellent article on the school, it’s renaming, my mural, and on
Octavia E. Butler's story.

‘The Visions of Octavia Butler’

By Lynell George
a Los Angeles-based journalist, essayist and author.
Her latest book, “A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler,” was a 2020 finalist for the Hugo Award.

The visuals for this New York Times article and on-line project were created by converting scanned real-life objects, spaces and video footage into 3-D point clouds
by Ainslee Alem Robson
Director/Writer/Media Artist,
https://www.ainsleealemrobson.com/
https://www.ainsleealemrobson.com/about

Octavia E. Butler mural courtesy Roberto Quintana
and the Octavia E. Butler Magnet School.
http://www.artandsoulproductions.com/octavia-e-butler-mural.html

"I really love everything Roberto has done at
Altadena Arts Magnet / Octavia E. Butler Magnet School."
-Shannon Mumolo, Coordinator:
Signature Programs, Pasadena Unified School District

Special ‘THANX’ To:

Head Librarian:
Natalie Daily
([email protected])
Octavia E. Butler Library
Octavia E. Butler Magnet
(formerly Washington STEAM Multilingual Academy)

And to:

Marcelle Hopkins
([email protected])
Visual Editor, Special Projects
The New York Times

0 Comments

...to Roberto's Blog!

‘Duit-On-Mon
-Dai-Luna-Prime’

  Roberto has been pestering the ‘Marketing’ staff here at Art and Soul for some time now to get together with ‘Research and Development’ to come up with a fun way for him to share all the great work out there of all the many other talented muralists and artists he's been "influenced by" over the years. ‘Sales’ was totally against the idea! ("How could that possibly improve the bottom-line?!"). ‘Marketing’ remains split, as usual ("We need more data"). ‘R&D’ thought it might be a fun way to "show off a little", and to showcase all those great ideas they keep finding out there on the internet. ‘HR’ said it might be a good way to keep 'The Crew' distracted ("Since they are all so bored since Covid hit, and Roberto is spending more and more time in his studio working on all those silly little easel paintings").
'The Crew' said: ’'Sure, We've got nothing else going on …but only if we get to share stuff about technique, materials, and equipment." ‘Receivables’ said: "It obviously won’t make more work for us, so why not!". 'Legal' said: "No Way! You are NOT going to reveal where you steal all your ideas from!" (Although Roberto values their legal advice, He rarely listen’s to their hysterics anyway). So... here we are! Welcome!

‘Duit-On-Mon-Dai-Luna-Prime’
     "As the title implies, I will post once a Month (on the first Monday, more or less). Feel free to leave a family friendly comment. Dialogue and praise is encouraged. Creativity, passion and wonder should be expected. Politics and personal grievances hopefully kept to private emails. And please… no Whining! and no sales pitches either (you can make your own damn blog for that).
   I expect to start becoming a little more savvy with all this social media stuff, but for now ‘Bookmark’ my website and check back every once in a while. I hope you will find it interesting. Don’t be too persnickety over my whimsical spelling and creative punctuations either, my Editorial Department is not what it used to be… I am seriously understaffed these days."
Peace and Love...
-Roberto Quintana, WFA