On a hot spring Sunday afternoon at Palo Alto High School, two students work together, taping up a wall by the Auto Shop. They are laying a foundation for a new mural, which will spell out “`SKO VIKES,” in vibrant Paly green, coupled with small cartoon characters representing students. From their car, upbeat music plays, filling the quiet weekend campus with energetic tones. Next to their car, hundreds of dollars in paint, tape, and equipment lay, awaiting use.
The student behind the transformation of this small part of campus into a vibrant work of art that passing students can admire and cherish is Ivan Sandler.
In his senior year and nearing graduation, Sandler has begun working on projects that will leave a lasting impression on campus. His most recent project — the mural — will be there for hundreds of students to see as they walk into school.
“It’s a fun mural,” Sandler said. “It’s just a big, green, prominent ‘`SKO VIKES.’ It’s simple, but I have some of my characteristics and my style in painting the mural. I have four characters that I drew. They have different tools making the ‘`SKO VIKES’ to show our school unity.”
Sandler said this mural represents his street/ graffiti style.
“I have like multiple styles,” Sandler said. “This [mural], I’d say, is definitely my graffiti style, if anything. On my website, I have a section called ‘street.’ I’d say this is in that kind of avenue where I’m doing these kind of cartoonish characters, and then mixing it with this very bleak ‘`SKO VIKES.”
According to Sandler, the characters on the mural represent different people and carry a level of significance for him.
“The characters definitely have some sort of emotional significance,” Sandler said. “They’re very expressionless, but their style and their posture and how I draw them and what they’re doing kind of says a lot about who they are as people … Each character is supposed to represent a different person, and I’d like to show that without using their faces or expressions.”
Sandler has enjoyed the process of making the mural despite its hardships.
“It’s definitely busy work, and my back hurts, but it’s very rewarding,” Sandler said. “I had other people here over the days, and it’s been really nice to just hang out with my friends while I’m working on this passion of mine and just have a good time.”
According to Sandler, the mural has been a dream of his for a long time.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a year and a half,” Sandler said. “There were some tricky logistics with the district, who were saying no … But after that summer, I kept on talking to the district and [Principal Brent] Kline, and eventually they allowed me to do it after a long time … Now, I’m finally painting it, which is super cool. And I’ve been wanting to do this forever, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Before Sandler was allowed to make the mural, Kline asked him to design green ‘learn, respect, connect’ banners that could be seen around the school.
“In junior year, I asked Mr. Kline if I could do a mural for the school because I thought it’d be a fun project,” Sandler said. “He told me that first I have to do the banners. And once I do the banners, if they look good, and all that went well, then I can do a mural.”
Despite having only recently started this mural project, Sandler’s passion for art began a long time ago.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been drawing just for fun,” Sandler said.
He got more into art in high school.
“I started it [art] more seriously sophomore year,” Sandler said. “It was after I entered a competition to get into a museum in Los Gatos and got in. I started making a lot more art and being way more passionate about it because I felt that there were actual rewards for my career.”
Since then, Sandler has developed an extensive and diverse portfolio featuring everything from small notebook sketches to street murals. Recently, he has even begun pushing his creative boundaries by venturing into digital animation and 3D modeling. Much of these works and projects are shared on his website, www.ivansandler.com.
As Sandler’s artistic career has progressed, so has his style.
“I’ve done a lot of experimentation with other mediums,” Sandler said. “When I was very young, I would just do pencil and paper. Then, in middle school, I moved on to markers, and now on my computer.”
Sandler credits his art teacher with helping him get through big projects.
“I do have motivation from my teacher, Ms. [Tracey] Atkinson, when it comes to doing bigger projects like the mural or museums,” Sandler said.
Having done art his whole life, Sandler plans to maintain an artistic spirit in the future.
“I didn’t want to go to art school because that’s not very me, but I applied to most schools with a dual major in art so I can keep on pursuing it,” Sandler said. “And I don’t really have any specific artistic careers in mind, but I know that I want to keep it like as a part of me in my life.”
