Unfinished mural to be completed

By Tam Nguyen, Nguoi Viet

WESTMINSTER, Calif. ― During a busy lunch hour at Bo De Vegetarian Food, the chefs worked hard in the kitchen, artfully preparing the food ordered by the throng of customers. In the dining room, artistry of a different sort took place.

The mural of a Bodhi tree is a working in process.

Applying her paintbrush to delicately create a Bodhi tree on the wall, self-taught Ana Harris went about the task of finishing an abandoned mural at the restaurant. While dining there one night with friends, Harris, 23, and restaurant owner David Dunlap started talking about why the mural had stopped in progress.

Dunlap explained to Harris, who recently finished her graduate studies in chemistry at UC Irvine, that an artist had started the mural in September but found painting conflicted with his school schedule. Dunlap said he had hoped to have a finished mural by Tet, but that didn’t happen. He was hoping to find a new artist, he told her.

Harris, a self-taught artist from San Antonio, volunteered. She has spent hours during the past three weeks at the restaurant, dropping by after her final exams to continue where the artist left off. Now that her final exams have ended, she is devoting as many hours as needed in hopes of finishing before she returns home in days.

Ana Harris paints the heart-shaped leaves of the Bodhi tree.

She didn’t start with an exactly blank canvas, but Harris didn’t have a really clear outline to follow. The unfinished mural consisted of a Bohdi tree with branches that didn’t have any leaves, and there was no background.

“Before, it looked like a volcano erupting inside the tree on a white background,” Dunlap said.

Initially, Harris didn’t know what the original artist was trying to create, she said.

“I didn’t know what the mural was supposed to be until David told me a little bit about it,” she said as she worked on the mural. From Dunlap’s description, Harris sketched the image to a notebook and got to work.

On this day, the customers took notice. One diner, sitting at a table with a friend, whispered to him and said of Harris, “She has talent, and it’s turning out great.”

Dunlap thinks so, too.

“I am fortunate to have had her come to this restaurant to eat with her friends,” Dunlap said. “I was surprised when she offered to finish the mural.”

For Harris, it seemingly is a nice relief from her studies and a chance for her to work on her biggest project to date.

“I just have the passion of drawing and would like to improve my skills and use this opportunity to do so,” she said. “Also I get to help a friend be happy and not worry about the unfinished mural.”