Arts and Education

Artist: Erik Orejel

“Arts and Education” 2022

Location: South west side of S. Main St. and W. St. Gertrude Pl. intersection

“Art and Education First is the name of this piece. Having traveled to all of our neighboring city’s in Orange County I personally believe that the city of Santa Ana and its Santanero’s embody a strong sense of education values and artistic merits compared to the rest of the city’s. In no way are my intentions to be bias, but Santa Ana truly represents the art scene and education. I mean, what other city has had a motto like Santa Ana where its own motto once was “education first”. What other city constantly pursues it’s artist to come out and show off their work more than once a month? Where else can you congregate with fellow artist and community leaders that care about its town? I don’t’ think the other city’s can compare to Santa Ana. What I have done in this piece is to represent the bases for our education, creativity and health through symbolism. Bold and different line weight can give the commuters a quick thought and sense of these elements as they pass by. Perhaps the design work might captivate the creative mind of someone and make them create something of their own or even bring a thought of pursuing a goal in mind. This design was intended to be fun, creative, be fluid and loose, a wonder of sort, have a sense of beauty, and hopefully spark some imagination in someone’s mind. The intent is to have the passerby be captivated and memorized by the art, especially kids. I’m hoping they’ll be looking forward to passing by this piece and seeing something different every time they go by it.” – Erik Orejel