HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Raberta Sabori instructs Tanner Jolley and Jonathan Lynn on how to apply color to the mural. HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Andrew Sabori helps Cassondra Lauver's fifth graders paint a mural at Manse Elementary School. HORACE LANGOFRD, JR. / PVT Fifth-graders Lauren Dalton and Jonathan Lynn work on the mural at Manse Elementary. Advertisement

It all started with the mural depicting historical Pahrump painted on the side of the Nye County School District office on West Street and Wilson Road.

Muralist Andrew Sabori and his wife, Raberta, spent several weeks working with high school students and helping them depict the town's historical landmarks in paint.

Sabori taught the students fundamentals of mural paintings (not too much detail, since murals are meant to be appreciated from a distance) and helped them to fill in the general figures he had mapped.

The rest of the school district was quick to catch on to the idea, and it wasn't long before the fifth graders at Manse Elementary, located across the street from the district office, were brightening up a formerly bland block wall in the school's courtyard.

"They were just tickled pink," said Sabori of the students. "They couldn't wait; the teachers had to hold them back."

To ensure that each of the students get an opportunity to paint, Sabori usually maps out the figures and has four or five students help fill them in for about 15 minutes at a time.

But Manse isn't the only school with eager student artists.

Sabori now has a whole host of future projects, including J.G. Johnson Elementary School and what he described as a "huge project" slated for numerous buildings at Rosemary Clarke Middle School.

Then there's the prominent blue wall at Great Basin College (where Sabori has been asked to teach a painting course and an art history class) for which a painting is being discussed.

"It's snowballed into a full-time job," Sabori said with a warm chuckle.

Sabori is well-known in the greater art world for his unique portrait style. He has depicted cultural icons ranging from Jerry Garcia to Ronald Reagan during the past three decades and his work is prominently displayed in a broad variety of locations from Las Vegas to Los Angelos.

The artist said he enjoys having the opportunity to teach students about art in a state where a lack of funding makes cultural academics a luxury.

"Their little eyes light up," Sabori explained. "They don't know anything about art. I have to show them how to hold the brush."

The students aren't the only ones who are eager for Sabori's projects to start.

"The parents are real happy that we're giving them art and teaching them about it," Sabori said.

The artist said the projects were being primarily supported through the Pahrump Arts Council, although he hoped to establish a more formal, and possibly grant-funded, districtwide program in the future.