Mural Project

With the generous support of a grant from The Federated Department Stores Foundation, MindPeace funded and organized a three-panel mural project utilizing the skills of local artist Peter Jaquish and the painting and creative ideas from the children in three of Cincinnati’s residential treatment programs.

Working in collaboration with MindPeace, Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus, St. Aloysius Orphanage and St. Joseph Orphanage each provided children to participate in creating and painting a single panel, which have been put together to form the three panels of one mural. The panels are displayed in free-standing frames, and while each can stand alone, together they become a cohesive representation of collaboration and have allowed, and will continue to allow, us to extend MindPeace’s goals in the community.

In late Winter 2005, the artist, Pete Jaquish, met with 35 children from the three local residential mental health treatment facilities to come up with ideas for a mural that would tie into the theme of the anti-stigma campaign "Put a New Face on Mental Illness." The children were asked to draw a picture of a face that was representative of one of the emotions they felt in connection with their mental illness and to come up with words describing their emotions. The mural is a direct reflection of these faces and emotions.

The mural, entitled “Mixed Emotions”, contains a total of 48 faces drawn by the children (16 on each panel). The descriptive words that the children came up with are represented in the background of the mural. The colors running horizontally across the mural tie the panels together.

The mural represents many educational opportunities. We have prepared and distributed an informational form including a “coloring” exercise for children, comprised of the outlines of the faces from each of the panels. We also plan on incorporating the mural images in other tools, including a “word search” utilizing the “emotions” the children identified.

The mural is full of great visual images, and we love the fact that the design is “childish” so that it will be obvious that children helped with the design. Mr. Jaquish explained that people typically only spend 5 seconds looking at a piece of art. In 5 seconds, we hope that someone will walk away with at least one face and one word to consider.

The completed mural was privately unveiled in May 2005 at a picnic at Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus, attended by Junior League of Cincinnati members and their families, as well as the children from the residential treatment facilities, many of whom participated in the mural project. A public unveiling is planned for the Spring of 2006 in conjunction with the Cincinnati Public Library.

We are proud to have displayed the mural throughout the city since its completion. Each residential treatment facility had the opportunity to display the entire mural for one month in the Summer of 2005. It has also been displayed during private events. These have included the ALJI conference in Cincinnati in the Fall of 2005, which included a display of the mural at the Freedom Center, and at the One World Wednesday event at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Mixed Emotions Workbook

The Mixed Emotions Workbook was inspired by the MindPeace mural project and is dedicated to children who cope with mental illness every day. Included within this workbook are 12 pages of thought-provoking activities that help children grades 3-8 to explore their emotions. All pages may be duplicated. Click here to download additional copies of the Mixed Emotions Workbook.

About the Artist

Peter D. Jaquish, a Northern Kentucky visual artist with concentrations in relief printmaking, painting and large scale murals. His prints are on a large scale in black and white and come from his personal observation and experiences. The murals are bright in color with curvaceous movement to excite the eye, generally composed of the history, hopes and aspirations which the community holds dearest.

Pete does commission works and also works in close relationship with communities and schools to create unique and powerful large scale murals. Pete has had exhibits locally and nationally and is the 2004 recipient of the Josephine Whitney Duveneck Award for his continued contribution to the arts and community in Northern Kentucky. He attended Northern Kentucky University for a Bachelor of Fine Arts from 1990-1998 while working full time for the city of Covington, Kentucky.