Aptos High’s AP studio art class caught a wave of creativity at the Surf City Coffee Company’s “pooch” patio.
Students from the local High School were invited to create a mural on the outside wall of the Aptos Surf City Coffee location by Suzanne McCourt, who has owned the business with her husband Danny for 20 years. The theme, Surf Dog, will feature a dog riding a surfboard and wearing sunglasses, visible to Soquel Drive passer bys and all who frequent the enclosed doggy area.
The idea to get the high school art students involved in this project was something McCourt had always wanted to do. “I always looked at the blank wall, like a blank canvas,” she says.
An achieved artist herself, McCourt was welcomed as the Invitational Artist for the 25th Anniversary, 2010 AT&T Pebble Beach national Golf Pro-Am, and has received numerous other honors for her collection of fine art paintings. Check it out for yourself: www.suzannemccourt.com
McCourt, along with her respected peer, artist Andy Lewis, came up with the theme for Surf Dog and shared it with Aptos High’s Visual Art Instructor Veronique Marks who welcomed the idea. The project itself and the time frame for the finished mural is being directed by Marks and two senior student leaders, Becky Bell and Rachel Martin.
“We are extremely ahead of schedule,” says Martin, who will go on to study Graphic Design at Cal Poly in the Fall. “We have 17 people working on it…every student had to do their own stencils. There are 15 students and two teacher aids.”
The students began working on the mural May 16th. They were rolling away May 23rd, can be seen again on May 30th along with one undetermined weekend.
The dog patio that has been here for years, explains McCourt, was an idea inspired by my husband who has a love for dogs. The dog patio also hosts the AFRP (Animal Friend Rescue Project) the first Saturday of every month, says McCourt. Often there are as many as 30 dogs that are brought here and are taken home by new owners. http://www.animalfriendsrescue.org/events.html
