Horizon Juvenile Center: Jungle of Hopes

The goal of this mural was to provide a hopeful and peaceful addition to the walls of the chapel inside Horizon Juvenile Center. We were tasked to work with the residents of J. Hall, and teaching artist Peach Tao asked them questions such as, “What makes you feel at peace?” and “What animal would you want to be?”

Combining responses to these questions like “being immersed in nature “ and “jaguar and cheetahs,” Peach came up with the idea of a jungle of hope. The images in the mural are tropical, floral and embellished with fantasy elements. Two colorful and powerful jaguars sit on each end of the mural, and in the center we see a cheetah’s face emerge from hibiscus flowers. There are also paper origami cranes that fly far, far away – they were inspired by the paper cranes a resident made. In a scroll in the center of the mural, we also see the word “hope” written in different languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and Hebrew.

Peach writes, “I hope the boys get to fly far in their lives, pass through tropical landscape and also snow-capped mountains, rice fields and fruitful trees.”