How Crow Became Black

I just love this 2009 mural I did with the students of Three Rivers Union School here in Three Rivers, Ca. It is a Yokuts story about how Crow became black. In the beginning, Falcon and Crow were the same color. Falcon wanted to change that. He told Crow to help him build a net of sticks and they carried it into the sky. When Night Sky came rolling in, she did not see the net, and was trapped in it. Falcon grabbed her and rolled her into a ball and rubbed her all over Crow. That is how he became the colors of night.
I painted the mural with about 200 children from Kindergarten through 8th grade. One class at a time came, about 20 kids in each class. While one half painted, the other half toured the Discovery West Museum. The youngest kids paint first, and as classes get older, the kids are able to add harder detail. We were finished in 3 days.