Artist works to preserve large tile mural before heavy construction at Pasadena school

Seven years later, the artist who helped 750 students at McKinley School in Pasadena build an 110-foot long mural is working to take it down -- one tiny glass tile at a time.

The 65,000-tile mural is being removed from a four-foot playground retaining wall targeted for demolition as part of a $36-million campus remodel expected to break ground in March.

Artist Jose Antonio Aguirre is supervising a two-man crew working by hand to chisel one-square-foot sections of tile away from the wall for storage at his Pasadena studio. Aguirre hopes to reinstall the mural somewhere on campus after construction is completed.

The upgrades at McKinley — paid for by school construction bond proceeds — include a new gymnasium, classroom building and kitchen as well as a reconfigured playground, according to Pasadena Unified.

To remove the mural, workers glue fiberglass cloth to the front of the mural to hold its pieces together as they work.

“It’s like peeling a banana,” Aguirre said.

Saws and larger chisels used early in the process were causing too much damage to tiles. It now takes one worker 15 to 20 minutes to remove each square-foot section.

“We want to keep as much as possible of the kids’ work intact,” Aguirre said.

Schools officials provided the artist with $20,000 to fund the preservation work.

Parents, students and teachers who campaigned to save the mural last year said the donation-funded project represented community commitment to arts education.

McKinley reopened in 2001 as an arts magnet school, but funding shortfalls prevented the concept from being fully realized.

-- Joe Piasecki, Times Community News

Follow Joe Piasecki on Twitter: @joepiasecki