27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” – A New Mural by Pat Perry in Princeton, Wisconsin

In September 2025, the Princeton Art Collective unveiled its latest public art commission: 27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano, a mural by internationally recognized artist Pat Perry. Painted in the heart of Princeton, Wisconsin, the work pays tribute to local educators while reflecting on the broader human condition.

For the piece, Perry collaborated with 27 local schoolteachers, using their portraits as the foundation for a narrative that explores resilience, responsibility, and the quiet persistence of purpose in uncertain times.

 “I’m proud of the concept, and I feel like this one had some extra heart and soul behind it. Twenty-seven local schoolteachers let us use their portraits to demonstrate an idea about the moment we are living in. I think it showed another way that art can speak to local communities without being formulaic or cliché,” Perry said.

The mural combines striking portraiture with metaphorical imagery, centering around the idea that even in small rural towns, people are never fully insulated from the immense forces that shape history.

In his artist statement, Perry reflected on the mural’s deeper meaning:
“Even in a small rural town, you’re not insulated from the immense forces that shape the world. History happens. Economies rise and fall. Wars begin. Continents drift and mountains erode. One day, the sun will expand and swallow the Earth. Most of us don’t get much of a say in any of it. Yet, day after day, people find purpose. They wake up early, show up with intention, and try to make sense of things—not just for themselves, but also for others. Teachers do this every day. Not for recognition, and rarely for much pay. It’s a repetitive act of maintenance that holds things together. Choosing to shoulder that task, even while standing at the edge of something vast and indifferent, is a quiet act of defiance. Amidst overwhelmingness and uncontrollableness and unanswerableness, teachers—and all custodians of human affairs—keep meaning in the world by steadily and stubbornly tending to it.”

Through 27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano, Perry highlights the profound role of teachers as anchors of meaning, even when the world feels uncertain and overwhelming. The mural, at once local and universal, reflects his belief in the power of public art to connect communities through shared human stories.

The Princeton Art Collective’s commission not only enriches the town’s cultural landscape but also honors the everyday contributions of educators—those who continue to “keep meaning in the world” against all odds.

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The post 27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” – A New Mural by Pat Perry in Princeton, Wisconsin first appeared on street art united states.
by Sami Wakim via street art united states

27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” – A New Mural by Pat Perry in Princeton, Wisconsin

In September 2025, the Princeton Art Collective unveiled its latest public art commission: 27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano, a mural by internationally recognized artist Pat Perry. Painted in the heart of Princeton, Wisconsin, the work pays tribute to local educators while reflecting on the broader human condition.

For the piece, Perry collaborated with 27 local schoolteachers, using their portraits as the foundation for a narrative that explores resilience, responsibility, and the quiet persistence of purpose in uncertain times.

 “I’m proud of the concept, and I feel like this one had some extra heart and soul behind it. Twenty-seven local schoolteachers let us use their portraits to demonstrate an idea about the moment we are living in. I think it showed another way that art can speak to local communities without being formulaic or cliché,” Perry said.

The mural combines striking portraiture with metaphorical imagery, centering around the idea that even in small rural towns, people are never fully insulated from the immense forces that shape history.

In his artist statement, Perry reflected on the mural’s deeper meaning:
“Even in a small rural town, you’re not insulated from the immense forces that shape the world. History happens. Economies rise and fall. Wars begin. Continents drift and mountains erode. One day, the sun will expand and swallow the Earth. Most of us don’t get much of a say in any of it. Yet, day after day, people find purpose. They wake up early, show up with intention, and try to make sense of things—not just for themselves, but also for others. Teachers do this every day. Not for recognition, and rarely for much pay. It’s a repetitive act of maintenance that holds things together. Choosing to shoulder that task, even while standing at the edge of something vast and indifferent, is a quiet act of defiance. Amidst overwhelmingness and uncontrollableness and unanswerableness, teachers—and all custodians of human affairs—keep meaning in the world by steadily and stubbornly tending to it.”

Through 27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano, Perry highlights the profound role of teachers as anchors of meaning, even when the world feels uncertain and overwhelming. The mural, at once local and universal, reflects his belief in the power of public art to connect communities through shared human stories.

The Princeton Art Collective’s commission not only enriches the town’s cultural landscape but also honors the everyday contributions of educators—those who continue to “keep meaning in the world” against all odds.

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The post 27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” – A New Mural by Pat Perry in Princeton, Wisconsin first appeared on street art united states.
by Sami Wakim via street art united states

Gaza: Resilience Amid Ruins

I live in the United States, where I often look around and see people going about their day, sipping coffee, jogging, shopping — untouched by the images of Gaza that now live in my mind. It is not indifference born of ignorance; it is a chosen blindness. To the so-called “West”: spare us your lectures on human rights and racism. While you preach morality, your governments arm and enable genocide. While Palestinians are slaughtered, you go about life as if nothing is happening. Your silence is complicity, your comfort is built on our blood. Don’t speak of justice while you stand by and watch it burn.

And yet, despite this abandonment, the Palestinian people endure. For more than 16 years under siege, for nearly two years under unrelenting bombardment since October 2023, Gaza has stood as a testament to human resilience. Schools, hospitals, homes, and entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble. Families torn apart. Communities erased. And still — amid starvation, thirst, and the constant fear of death — the people of Gaza refuse to disappear.

Take the words of Munira El Najar, a Palestinian mother and teacher, who wrote to the mothers of the world:
“We do not ask for pity, but for witness… so that your children, when they grow up, will know that we had children too, that we had arms and hearts and fears just like you. Let the world remember that in Gaza mothers still give birth under fire, raise children in tents, and teach them that love survives even in war.”

This is the unfathomable resilience of Gaza. Mothers counting their children each morning, praying none were lost to the night’s bombardment. Fathers standing in food lines not knowing if bread will come. Children learning to laugh despite the sound of drones circling above. Life in Gaza is not lived in the ordinary sense — it is survival, a waiting, a testament.

Journalists, doctors, nurses, and aid workers in Gaza embody a kind of courage that the Western world cannot even imagine. They know that to report, to heal, to serve is to paint a target on their backs. Israel openly hunts them, threatens them, and kills them — and yet they persist. They work not only out of duty to their people, but out of defiance to a world that ignores their suffering and denies their reality. Their heroism is incomprehensible, a kind of sacrifice beyond the imagination of those who sit comfortably in newsrooms in New York, London, or Paris.

Even the armed groups, despite the relentless military campaign against them, continue to resist. Israel has degraded their capabilities but has not extinguished them. Their persistence, though militarily small compared to Israel’s might, is symbolic: Gaza will not be erased.

What lessons do we, in our comfort, draw from this? Gaza teaches us resilience in the face of despair, patience in the face of endless hardship, faith even when the world crumbles. Their lives, filled with uncertainty, uprooted by violence and deprivation, are still marked by hope and devotion to God. Their “beautiful patience” (ṣabr jamīl) is not passive, but active — a refusal to surrender dignity.

And above all, Gaza teaches us community. In the ruins, neighbors feed one another, families shelter strangers, and people hold each other up when the ground has given way. Their unity under fire reminds us that solidarity is not an abstract concept; it is the act of survival itself.

The West will one day look back in shame — or be judged by history as complicit. But Gaza will be remembered for something else: for resilience, for faith, for love under fire. The people of Gaza, rooted like olive trees in their land, remind us that when the forest burns, the trees do not run. They endure, and in their endurance lies humanity’s most powerful lesson.

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The post Gaza: Resilience Amid Ruins first appeared on street art united states.
by Sami Wakim via street art united states