VAN NUYS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A jet plane has become the canvas for a new art project undertaken by young people in Southern California, who are being allowed to use their creative energy in an unconventional way.
The decommissioned jet is getting a makeover thanks to an organization that encourages young people to engage in an artistic project.
"This is a beautiful piece of art that needs to be shown to the world," said Kyle Denman, the Executive Director of Arts Bridging the Gap, an L.A. nonprofit that organized the event.
More than 150 people came out to Van Nuys Airport to paint the decommissioned Learjet 60, which was donated by Dreamline Aviation.
"Young people are our future. To see their imagination take off, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing," said Denman.
Many of the painters were kids from the community organization Casa Esperenza in Panorama City. The participants' imaginations inspired the design, which is a peregrine falcon speeding through the cosmos.
Fittingly, the mural represents being set free to dream through art.
"A cosmic falcon. So if you look at the front of the plane it has five eyes. We've just been trying to inspire the imagination I guess was the goal of it," said Carlo Zafranco, a muralist.
Getting the design onto the plane wasn't easy. At night, muralists Carlo and Ethel Zafranco projected the design onto the planes surface to trace the outline.
Painters drove, in some cases, an hour and a half to fill in the rest.
"We're going to go paint a plane! Everybody got up and was like I want to go paint the plane. So once in a lifetime experience," said Paul Lazear of Monrovia.
Kaiya Ramsey of Monrovia agreed.
"It's fun to be in the sun with your friends and painting and making something that was a plane before into a beautiful piece of art," she said.
Funds raised from the painting event support art programs in under-resourced L.A. communities.
The organization also wants to find a permanent home for the plane soon.
"We are hoping we can put this plane in a public place in L.A. where kids can go past it and see that they painted that, or other people can see that you can take something that is decommissioned and create something magical for the future," said Georgia Van Cuylenburg, the founding director of Arts Bridging the Gap.
