Janice M. Chau

This past weekend was our last workday of the year for Compton Initiative.  We were at Roosevelt Middle School and Compton High. Thousands of volunteers came out to repaint the entire school's exterior, and a about 200 volunteers came to paint and boldly brighten up Roosevelt's campus with 3 murals.  Thanks to the entire leadership team; these days never happen without you.  Kudos for finishing the year off strong as our lieutenants and leaders.  Check out what we did on Saturday October 15, 2011.in the mural department. I personally had the privilege to re-vectorize the school pledge, and design the We Are Roosevelt Mural.  Thank you to my clean-up artists: Ruthy and Audra.!!! We Are Roosevelt Lions Roar 600 foot Wall of Color! Typically, this is what a typical workday looks like: Another workday accomplished!!! Learn how you can be a volunteer at:  Compton Initiative

I took this picture back in 2004, it makes me so happy, Hippos are so happy!!!  I had no idea that they'd be so ecstatic about bananas. And who knew that a giant large animal as such would acknowledge your presence.  In my brainstorm in this season of many dear friends who are giving birth, I had to create and ode of happiness. Therefore doing an illustration on the above reference was so necessary.  This piece is for Pepper Lilly's Jungle Gallery. Here is the drawing: Happy Splashin' Hippos, pencil 8.5 in by 11 in. Finished piece to come!!!!

Welcome to Anderson Elementary School,, school main entrance Here are the final products following up from the precious blog post.  Anderson Elementary School looks so different now that its painted in a soft butter yellow and colorful murals. We had about 60 volunteers and 5 hours to paint that day. Awesome, and satisfying after all the planning,  tracing, scanning, and drawing.  It was worth it, the principal was so blessed. Kindergarten Area Little Tikes Can Fly!  Design Collab: Janice Chau and Avery Ota 6' by 7'  These two murals are special.  They can be seen from the Metro Blue Line between Rosa Parks/WIllimington stop and Compton stop.   Little Tikes Can Fly!  Design Collab: Janice Chau and Avery Ota 6' by 7' I Know I Can!  35' by 7 ' I know I can... be a judge, a graduate, an officer! I know I can...be an artist, a hair stylist! I know I can....be a dentist, doctor, contractor/engineer, business executive!

In the next week, I'm working with the Compton Initiative. A lot of planning, drawing, coloring, tracing and painting will be going on in prep for the workday on July 30th, 2011.  If your interested in volunteering: check out what they are about:   The Initiative  and sign up. I've been working with the Initiative for about a year and a half now. This will be my first time leading the mural department with a friend of mind Adelle Nieves. It's anticipatory to know you'll have like a hundred volunteers under your umbrella. This is what all of the buildings look like. It's pretty grey and white everywhere! Not the best learning environment for kids The concept for Anderson Elementary School is about Going Places...and Getting Somewhere. We are designing murals to encourage and inspire education, imagination, and innovation. We want the kids to think, feel, acknowledge, and live their dreams, not just daydream about it. It's one thing to

Unrestrained, graphite on velum, 5.5" by 8"' July 11, 2011 Just so happens today I was feeling kind of tied down, controlled by several situations in life, I've been having these visions of flying paper cranes, so I thought I'd sketch it out.   I was listening to this song Unrestrained , and this is what I was feeling and always hope for: to fly freely. Story behind the piece Listen-Unrestrained, We Cry Out Jeremy Camp

Grace like a Whale, 8" by 5.5", watercolor I needed a warm-up before I start doing final drawings for a picture book that I'm working on. (coming soon)  So, I sketched out and painted what I've been experiencing these past couple of weeks.  This piece is expressing how I've been experiencing grace ,  what I think it looks like, and how it moves in my life.  This dawned on me when I did some volunteer mural painting at the Aquarium of the Pacific this past Sunday. I realized how big the gift of  grace  is, and how it steadily moves gracefully like whales as they dance and cruise through the ocean blue.  

7 days = 77 hours and 15 mins of hard work paid off.  The dimensions of the mural is approximately 38 ft. by 9.5 ft.   It is located downstairs in the staff employee hallway entrance . Hyatt Corporation developed a business model to enrich the wellness and community of their staff: Hyatt Thrive.  Hyatt is not only about hospitality, quality service, business traveler's convenience and luxurious vacationing; they are aiming for their staff's well-rounded character.  Hyatt Thrive is about giving back to the community.  Their four pillars are: Education and Personal Advancement, Health and Wellness, Economic Development and Investment, and Environmental Sustainability. The General Manager's vision for this mural was to encourage the staff to volunteer by giving back to the community under one of these pillars and to enhance the employee staff entrance. The managers met together and they gave me a concept and vision.  (see previous blog posting) The

I was asked if I would design a mural for the Hyatt Regency Hotel of Huntington Beach. Their vision was 4 columns and a large background of orange trees.  The 4 columns would have four bulletin cases mounted over them displaying the 4 pillars of there business strategies:  Arts and Education, Health and Wellness, Economic and Investment Development, and Sustainability   These are the four things they wanted to encourage, and boost the pride of their staff.  It would have been painted in their new employee staff entrance.   A great concept.  The staff would write their names on paper oranges and tape it near the pillar that they contributed to.  The main point was to show the growth of community service from the Hyatt of HB to Orange County and LA County community.  This was to display the growing bigger picture, thus the reason for an orange grove mural.