Transcript

Location: Spence Elementary, Across the Universe Mural

You’re facing the school building. Turn around, and as you’re looking at the front of the shed where the door is, you see a rocket ship exploding into outer space. The mural is called Across The Universe, and the inspiration for the title and really the work came from the Beatles song “Across the Universe.” And as I was working on this project, that song just kept coming into my head. This song had been tattooed on my nephew’s arm, and he passed in 2020. And so as I was working on the mural, I just was always thinking of Ben, Ben Belzer and just felt a lot of inspiration and love from him. He was somebody that was a big thinker and a big dreamer. He was a musician. He was an artist in many ways. And his nickname growing up was Benny Bear, so there’s a bear constellation that’s in the corner of the mural. So it’s dedicated to Ben in my heart, and it’s also dedicated to all the students at Spence. My name’s Ronna Metz, and I am the art teacher at Harry Spence Elementary.