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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Veteran paints mural at Ramsey Magnet School of Science

In this May 17, 2017 photo, local artist Jason Sanchez paints a galaxy mural in the front hallway of Ramsey Magnet School of Science in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Sanchez, a disabled Army veteran, has been spending several hours each weeknight since mid-April to complete the solar system mural at no cost to his childhood school. He plans to have it done in early June. (Loren Benoit/Coeur D'Alene Press via AP) ORG XMIT: IDCOE101 (Loren Benoit / AP)
In this May 17, 2017 photo, local artist Jason Sanchez paints a galaxy mural in the front hallway of Ramsey Magnet School of Science in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Sanchez, a disabled Army veteran, has been spending several hours each weeknight since mid-April to complete the solar system mural at no cost to his childhood school. He plans to have it done in early June. (Loren Benoit/Coeur D'Alene Press via AP) ORG XMIT: IDCOE101 (Loren Benoit / AP)

With a light flick of his wrist and a delicate spray of paint from the bristles of his paintbrush, Jason Sanchez created a galaxy.

“That’s the Milky Way Galaxy,” he said, gesturing to the starry image developing on the black paint of his mural in a front hallway of Ramsey Magnet School of Science.

“You see how it’s turning blue? It’s because I watered down the white paint a whole bunch because these are the stars that are farthest back.”

This isn’t just any mural, and Sanchez isn’t just any artist.

Sanchez, a disabled Army veteran, walked the halls of the school 30 years ago when he was a Ramsey student. Now his own children are enrolled there.

And the solar system mural he’s painting is more than a piece of art – it’s educational, it’s hyper-realistic enough to look like a photograph and it’s Sanchez’s way of saying “thank you” to a school that means the world to him. More hereDevin Heilman, Cda Press



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.