The Merced mural adorns a wall at Applegate Skatepark. The mural was painted in collaboration with Urbanists Collective. Patty Pratt has left her mark, very literally, on the Central Valley. As an artist, muralist, designer and sign maker, her life’s work is to spread beauty, creativity and community in Merced and beyond. “I’ve been an artist all my life, and I started painting murals in Merced in 1999 when they were not quite legal yet,” Patty said. Today, the murals are n

There’s a concept in Japanese art called “kintsugi,” which means “golden repair.” It’s the process of fixing broken pottery with gold-dusted lacquer, making the piece even more beautiful. As a philosophy, it considers breakage and repair to be part of the process rather than something to be disguised. Like other immigrants before them, the Japanese faced times of broken hope and broken trust in their new home. Japanese immigrants began arriving in California in the 1880s, f

Nagi Daifullah, a Yemeni immigrant, came to the U.S. to work as a grape harvester. He learned to speak English and Spanish and advocated for farmworker rights in the early 1970’s. Photo courtesy of the Fresno City & County Historical Society. All rights reserved. Sometimes heroes are found unexpectedly. Maybe they were overshadowed by a larger-than-life figure or their story got lost in history. Maybe they didn’t realize how great an impact their sacrifice would have. By an