Mural reveals the faces of Lynn

LYNN – Venita Figueroa and her friends got tired walking past a blank concrete wall between Washington Street and Central Square, so they decided to do something about it.?The wall was boring. We got together and made it beautiful,” said Raw Art Works artist Jeremy Reyes.Reyes and fellow Classical High School student Figueroa and 150 RAW teenager artists photographed 528 friends and other local residents and used a process called “inking” to transform the pictures into images resembling drawings. The images were transferred onto metal plates installed last week in the passageway linking Washington Street to Central Square.Lynn resident Andrea LeBlanc likes the way the teens transformed a gloomy walkway into an artistic attraction. “It cleans it up,” she said.Located in Central Square and founded 25 years ago as a way to provide a sense of belonging to young people through involvement in artistic creation, RAW will celebrate the 200-foot-long mural on Friday from 4-7 p.m. People portrayed on the mural will be invited to gather under the commuter railroad tracks and pick out their portraits.?We want to say thanks to people in the community,” said RAW staffer Sara Barrientos.Reyes got involved in RAW three years ago during what he described as a difficult time in his life. Combining schoolwork and family life with the time he spends in RAW?s Central Square studio has helped him.?It?s given me a more positive outlook,” Reyes said.Lynn Vocational Technical Institute student Kelly McNulty said the portrait mural “brings the city together.”?These are all people who are from Lynn. It?s a really cool project,” she said.Figueroa said the teens planned the portrait project as a way to thank Lynn residents and other supporters for helping RAW aid local youth and expand its programs. Barrientos said the mural could not have been created without support from the city and the MBTA.?We came up with a project for the community,” she said.