The Hands of an Artist: Lipscomb University Student's Art Transforms Elementary School
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Imagine an elementary school where students are surrounded by German castles, charging horses, curious giraffes and majestic mountains. These images and many more are treasures given to the students of David Lipscomb Elementary School by Orlando Mathers, a school maintenance staff member and Lipscomb University student. Mathers, an emerging Nashville artist, wanted to brighten up the hallways and classrooms for the students and teachers. He took the blank walls of the school and transformed them into gardens and county fairs and forests.
When you walk into the school, you may see Mathers putting together desks or working on a teacher’s maintenance request. But watch long enough and you catch him headed for his paints with a new project in mind. Mathers began painting when he was five years old. Much to his mother’s dismay, he painted on her walls every time he got a chance. “I used to get a spanking a lot,” Mathers claims, “but I wouldn’t stop. She finally let me go for it.” Before long, his mother recognized that painting was more than a passing phase in his life. She saw his talent. “Painting is easy for me,” Mathers claims. “My mother explained to me that not everyone can do this.” His parents encouraged his gift even though his father reminded him that he might be hungry as an artist. Mathers reminded his father, “I know, but I still want to be an artist.” His father acknowledged his artistic desire by telling Mathers, “Son, if you have a job that you love, you will never work a day in your life.”
Mathers does love his job. He knows that he is doing work God allows him to do and he does it for God’s glory and for the children at the school. On one wall close to the school’s library, Mathers created a colorful garden. As the children watched his work in progress, they began to make requests for additions to the work. One young girl asked if a goat could be painted in and Mathers granted her request. If the children look closely, they can find not only a goat, but also birds, butterflies and bugs hidden among the rainbow of blooms.
Mathers uses his talents to brighten the lives of other children, also. He donated his time to work with the Historic Preston Taylor Community Art Project one summer. He painted a hallway for the children in that community with pictures which transport them to Athens, Paris, Australia and London. He encouraged children to read and showed them how to paint through his work with that project.
Service is nothing new to Mathers. While in the Army, he served our country in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield. He also serves as a senior youth counselor each summer at Lylewood Christian Camp near Clarksville, Tennessee. He has a positive impact on the lives of the students he works with at the camp and at David Lipscomb Elementary School. The children love “Mr. Orlando.” His office door at the school is adorned with artwork they give him in return for all he does for their school. Every time the children enter the school lunchroom, they remember what he has done for them as they see the 10 charging horses racing across the wall. Throughout the school, they see giraffes peeking around windows (one giraffe is named Cory after Mathers’ eight-year-old son who helps his father with the artwork from time to time). The students read scriptures painted above doorways and see little boys fishing with watermelon in their hands. Teachers see eagles painted in honor of their sons serving in the military. Staff members see clowns and castles and mountain views instead of empty spaces on their walls. Mathers makes a difference at the school and in his community. He has the hands of an artist and the heart that allows him to share his talents with so many.
As he continues to paint, his work is become more known around Tennessee. Soon this Lipscomb staff member and student will have his work exhibited in two art centers. The Tennessee Art Center at Madison will display his works in their Artists Emerged exhibition which runs June 27 through July 22 with a free artist reception on July 13 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. The Centennial Art Center will showcase his work July 7-28 with an opening reception July 7 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. “Sometimes it amazes me,” Mathers states when he realizes his lifelong dream of becoming a professional artist is becoming reality. Mathers can look back at the history of his paintings from his mother’s walls to a school hall to an art center gallery and see his childhood wishes come true.