Project puts happy face on a dreary schoolhouse

No one at the William Monroe Trotter elementary school thought smiling aliens had so much power. But one artist's vision is helping transform not just school walls, but the school's identity.

Last fall, teachers Matthew Stahl and Amy Morrone decided to spruce up the drab building by commissioning Bren Bataclan to paint a mural on a large wall that had been vandalized with graffiti and had holes where plaster had been kicked out. Last Wednesday, the resulting artwork was formally unveiled.

Trotter is a confusing honeycomb of dark corridors with cinderblock-style walls and steel doors chipped of paint that convey a deflating message of institutional neglect.

''I've been here 14 years and I would come in here every day and kids would say, 'They make the building look nice on the outside but why don't they do anything about the inside?' " said Lynne White-Robbins, a teacher.

Bataclan's colorful and simple cartoon style resonates with students who helped shape the mural design by offering their own takes on his ''happy monsters" and suggested inspirational icons like Maya Angelou and Johann Sebastian Bach to be included.

''I think the mural inspires people," said Robert Matthews, 11, a student in Stahl's class. ''If you're feeling sad or down, or something happened at school, you look at it and you won't be sad or mad."

''He's got this great happy, energetic style," said Stahl, who liked Bataclan's work from a street art project he started in 2003 called ''Smile Boston."

''I really wanted to bring that piece of it into the school."

''They were so excited to be part of something, to give something of themselves," said Morrone.

''They feel like they have this link; they did something nice to beautify the school."

To pay for the mural, White-Robbins cobbled together over $4,000 in materials and donations from paint vendors, art supply stores, local businesses, and parents.

It's been so well-received, she's now trying to raise $10,000 to do more murals.

For Bataclan, the experience has been more rewarding than he expected.

''When kids see it, it goes beyond aesthetics.

''Kids say, 'I can do that.' "