Osan Air Base Community Mural
In 2023, I designed a community mural for Osan Air Base in South Korea. The project took 7 months and involved 24 volunteers within the military community.
How it started:
The mural is split into three parts: on the left section we see the four seasons, in the center is the 51st Squadron logo with its slogan written in Korean ("Let's Go Together"), and on the right shows children playing games while enjoying the scenic beauty of the country.
South Korea was my husband’s and my first Air Force assignment. While there, I got to know both the military community and the experience of living in a foreign country. I quickly realized how much there was to learn—about military life and Korean culture. One day, while walking around base with a friend, she suggested I paint a mural that represented the blend of both worlds. I reached out to the person in charge of the base’s park project, and she was excited to hear my ideas. After some planning, approvals, and gathering supplies, we started painting in August 2023 and finished on November 28th.
Left panel, The Seasons: including cherry blossoms, gingko leaves, monsoons, and the Korean National Flower - The Rose of Sharon.
Center panel, The Logo: including the 51st Squadron name, logo, and slogan (Let's Go Together), and papers with questions for a search and find.
Right panel, The Children: including the Osan Air Base planes (A-10, U-2, and F-16), a Buddhist temple, and various activities that both cultures enjoy.
The mural wall before I began painting.
The Process:
The scale of the mural was 4,410 sq ft. which meant we needed a lot of help. I asked around my community for adults and kids to come join the project to which we had 24 volunteers!
To make things easier I turned the whole mural into a paint by numbers. Grab a bucket of paint that matches the number and go!
How it ended:
My volunteers and I worked through Summer, Fall, and Winter until ending on November 28, 2023. We were featured in the newspapers Stars and Stripes Korea and The Crimson Sky for our addition to the base.
The gallery...
The result was too big to take a single photo, so please enjoy this gallery of the final mural.
