Special artists create Forest Service mural Albuquerque Journal 13 Aug 2016 Joline Gutierrez Krueger

Rudy Via, 30, is an avid outdoorsman and artist. He painted a self-portrait of himself fishing for a mural commissioned by the U.S. Forest Service. Via was born with cerebral palsy, but his mother says that has not limited him.

COURTESY OF VSA ARTS AND U.S. FOREST SERVICERudy Via, 30, is an avid outdoorsman and artist. He painted a self-portrait of himself fishing for a mural commissioned by the U.S. Forest Service. Via was born with cerebral palsy, but his mother says that has not limited him.

It was an idea as grand as the great outdoors. The big cheese of the U.S. Forest Service and other top officials were descending upon the Southwestern Region headquarters in Albuquerque, and Francisco Valenzuela wanted to transform the dull, windowless basement conference room where many meetings would take place into something more befitting the subject matter — something more parks and recreation.

So the great outdoors came indoors with the aid of camping chairs and theatrical props made to look like a campfire. That was easy enough. But the centerpiece as envisioned by Valenzuela, the regional director of the Forest Service’s division of Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness Resources, was a huge mural that artistically captured the nebulous concept of sustainable recreation, the Forest Service’s credo.

“Sustainable recreation is a movement, a new way of thinking and acting about recreation management and the role it has in improving lives, communities and our natural world,” said Denise Ottaviano, Forest Service public affairs specialist. “It engages with the enormous and creative energy of people who care for and benefit from public lands.”

Instead of commissioning a professional artist, Valenzuela and assistant Julie Padilla sought out a very special group of artists at the VSA Arts of New Mexico, a nonprofit whose program at the North Fourth Art Center in Albuquerque provides visual, performing and literary arts instruction to adults with disabilities.

This mural was completed by students of VSA Arts for the U.S. Forest Service in March hangs in a basement conference room at the Forest Service offices at 333 Broadway SW.

The concept was explained to the VSA Arts folks, but no specifics were provided, no proposals or drafts required.

“I just told Julie, once they understand the idea, don’t get in their way,” Valenzuela said. “Let them use their imagination and skills to tell a story.” It was a leap of faith. It was also a little unnerving.

“It was scary,” Valenzuela admitted. “We didn’t know what we would get.” He needn’t have worried. “Our students may not be able to hike as fast or climb as far or have the words to express their love of being in nature, but they get it,” said Susanna Kearny, visual arts outreach director. “It was such a cool collaborative effort with our teachers and our students.”

Seventeen students — some intellectually disabled, some with physical issues — crafted the mural on a canvas spanning 16 feet across and 6 feet high. Lead teachers Tom Brejcha and Tyler Smith and three other teachers helped sketch out the outlines of what their students wanted to convey. And then they let the students go to it for the next five weeks.

Across the canvas grew bright green trees and blue and purple flowers. The Sandias rose rosy pink. A blue river rushed along. Skunks and squirrels, deer and elk, roadrunners and salamanders, rabbits and turtles, butterflies and ravens populated the landscape. Several woodland creatures danced with children.

Woodsy Owl and Smokey Bear were there. Curiously, so was Bigfoot.

Throughout the bucolic scene were people, lots of people, hiking, climbing, camping, and communing with nature. An elegant woman holding a parasol with her gold jewelry-wrapped arm floated down the river in a canoe. A man in a wheelchair with a red backpack fished in the stream.

That man is Rudy Via, and his self-portrait was his contribution.

Via, his mother said, was born 30 years ago with cerebral palsy, but that hasn’t stopped him from participating in activities from fishing to painting.

“He can do anything he wants in life,” said his mother, Bridget Via. “He just has to do it differently.”

Through her, I asked Rudy about the mural. He responded through a voice output communication device, a tablet with icons he pushes to speak aloud the words he wants to say.

“I was happy to be a part of this project, because it is in a public place for a lot of people to see the type of art that we do at VSA,” he said. “It was a group effort among many artists. I hope other people get excited about the beauty and the importance of our national forests.”

And just as Valenzuela had hoped, the mural was a beautiful exposition of how nature touches everyone and how important it is to so many in so many ways.

The mural, unveiled at that big meeting in March with Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, was a hit.

“People were just amazed by it, inspired by it,” Valenzuela said. “I consider it a miracle. It was just a work of love.”

The mural still hangs in that basement conference room, a bright spot in a room the public will likely never set foot in. That, it seems, is a shame. Perhaps someday, Valenzuela said, a more public place befitting a work of art about public lands by a special segment of the public, will be found. I hope so.