Jazmine Garcia worked as an intern with the Quality of Life Department/Public Art Program through the ACE program at Centennial High School during the Spring semester. Jazmine helped create content for the Public Art social media sites, created materials for outreach programs, helped update our database, and did other public art related tasks. The goal was that she would learn not only some new marketing skills but also learn more about the City’s public art collection, and hopefully develop a newfound appreciation for public art in general. As Jazmine’s internship was coming to an end, I invited her to share with our blog readers her thoughts about her favorite artwork in our public art collection. Here are Jazmine’s insights onJardin de la Fortaleza. The Jardin de la Fortaleza is a real unique project. The youth in the community center made this beautiful project. There are murals and landscaping. It captures the beauty of youth by using flowers and hummingbirds around a little girl, which is why I really like this project. Now that school and my internship are coming to an end for the summer, I realized that art is powerful in so many ways. While I did this internship with Public Art, I learned so much about art, marketing, and so much more. The City of Las Cruces really works hard to help the youth of Las Cruces be successful in whatever they want to do. I picked this mural not only because I really like it, but because it represents youth. 
Jardin de la Fortaleza mural is located at the Juvenile Citation Program Learning Center courtyard. It’s apropos that this is the art piece that resonates with Jazmine. It’s youth speaking to youth.Jardin de la Fortalezawas created by adolescents in the Juvenile Citation Program lead by Parks and Recreation staff member and artist, Lorenzo Braulio. According to the artist, it was meant to be a visual story of finding inner peace through focusing on beauty and thus finding fortitude. The mural was the first official project for the Las Cruces Mural Arts program through the Parks and Recreation Department. It was painted in 2014. On a side note, the image of the child in the mural is the artist’s daughter who was four months old at the time. Thank you, Jazmine! Rubber Ducks blog is brought to you by the Las Cruces Public Art program to share ideas, information, discussions, trends, and all things public art. Please send comments and ideas for future blogs to[email protected].
