Ken Brunkenhoefer, 65, said police caught the taggers who had sprayed bicycle-sized symbols and vulgar words on his fence.

Click here to view a larger image.
Todd Yates/Caller-Times

Sarra Humpal, a 16-year-old junior at Carroll High School, sits in front of a 50-foot mural that she painted during spring break. The homeowner was fed up with looking at graffiti.
PRINT THIS STORY | E-MAIL THIS STORY

Carroll junior gives taggers the brushoff

Sarra Humpal's 50-foot mural replaces graffiti

By Mike Baird Caller-Times
March 26, 2007


Thwarting graffiti turned out to be an artistic delight for Carroll High School's Sarra Phea Humpal - and she was paid $160 to do it. "I really hate graffiti," said Sarra, a junior and the school newspaper's graphic artist. "One spray ruins property, it's distasteful and ugly."

During spring break Sarra, a 6-foot 1-inch-tall 16-year-old, designed and painted a 50-foot mural over gang symbols on the back of a private-property privacy fence that faced the playground at Jones Elementary, her former school.



Property owner Ken Brunkenhoefer, 65, said police caught the taggers who had sprayed bicycle-sized symbols and vulgar words on his fence. "I had to do something with it, but smearing paint over it would stand out," said the insurance claims adjuster.

Brunkenhoefer said he "killed two birds," ridding his fence of graffiti and helping Sarra with money for her senior trip to Europe. He bought supplies - primary-colored paints that Sarra mixed into more than a dozen colors. Sarra said her height helped her paint the fence without a stool.

Brunkenhoefer is concerned that the painting could be tagged with graffiti, but said he is willing to have it repainted as necessary. He wished his next door neighbors would have their fences painted, too, so the children could enjoy them, even though his neighbors' fences haven't been tagged.

He, Sarra; her mother, Lissa Humpal; and a friend, Lauren Barker, began priming the defaced fence March 15.

"It snowballed," said Lissa Humpal, a teacher for 16 years. "The white base paint seeped through the wood and it was a lot of work brushing it thick enough into the course grooves of the wood." But Sarra remained steadfast, working daylong through Sunday when she put the final touches on 5-foot smiling flowers, butterflies and bunnies.

Many of the children and parents in his neighborhood have said they really enjoyed the painting, Brunkenhoefer said.

Onlookers appreciate the change Sarra brought to the playground. "Isn't it cool?" said Galen Hoffstadt, principal at the elementary. "I came in this weekend and went, 'Oh my gosh we have a new mural.' "

She learned Wednesday it was created by a former student.

"Sarra was always one of those great gals who believed when life gave you lemons, you should make lemonade," Hoffstadt said. "She turned that rudeness into beautiful art. What talent."

Hoffstadt e-mailed her colleagues after lunch.

"It looks like we have our own Mighty Marlin (the school's mascot) painter angel," Hoffstadt's e-mail to teachers and administrators read. "Let's say thank-you to Sarra for our delightful new view by helping her fund her trip." The principal told the faculty that an envelope for donations will be in her office until the end of the month.

The trip to London, Rome, Venice, Pompeii and Paris - all in three weeks next July - was worth having come back to school Monday with green, white and yellow acrylic paint highlights in her auburn hair, Sarra said.

"My friends were like, 'What's in your hair?' " Sarra said.

Her reply: "It's the European countryside."

Sarra always has been artistic, her mother said. While other children chalked sidewalks with hopscotch boxes, Sarra drew cartoon characters, Humpal said. "Sarra made ice-box drawings like all little kids," Humpal said, "but she didn't just color a blue house, it had three shades of blue." Sarra learned highlighting and shading skills as a sixth-grader at Grant Middle School, her mother said. "After that her drawings were always chosen for display at the art museum or the mall."

Sarra qualified last month for the state competition in the University Interscholastic League's Visual Arts Scholastic Event, coming up next month in Houston, said Tony Armadillo, her teacher in her advanced placement art design class.

Last year she won second place.

"Sarra is a great person," said Armadillo, an art teacher for 30 years, "who will bring great changes to any community."

Contact Mike Baird at 886-3774 or HYPERLINK mailto:bairdm@caller.com bairdm@caller.com