Art students work on new public project

By Hannah Musgrove & Grace Richey,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

The city of Davis has launched a new public art project which involves placing painted pianos in various downtown locations for community members to play, admire or simply enjoy the tunes.

As part of the “In the Key of Davis” public art initiative, students submitted original designs in the hopes to have their work painted on donated pianos to be displayed downtown. Junior Brandon Lim’s barber shop-inspired design was among the winners.

“It’s just an opportunity to get my art in the community,” Lim said. “And this year I’ve just been trying to do every art related thing I can get my hands on.”

Lim’s inspiration for the design came from both his after-school job of cutting hair as well as the structure of the piano itself. “The poles on the bottom of the piano just kinda remind me of barber poles,” Lim said.

Shelby Bernauer and Isabel Realyvasquez were among the students in Lim’s AP Art Studio class who helped him in the painting process.

“Me and Isabel had actually done our own designs and we decided that if one of us got it we would all work on it,” Bernauer said.

The actual process of decorating these pianos, however, is much more extensive than it may seem.

“We had to sand the whole thing, then we had to prime it, then we got to start painting it so it’s been like in all a two month process,” Bernauer said.

But for these students, the hard work is worth it; they’re able to showcase their art in the community.

“It’s gonna be cool seeing something that I worked on downtown and watching people play it,” Bernauer said. “It’s kinda like a proud moment that I contributed to something.”