Sweating the details: Morristown EMS building has new look thanks to students

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That’s one hot mural spray-painted onto the Morristown EMS building.

Scorching, even.

A handful of students sweated in the blazing sun Wednesday for the second straight day. Their perseverance paid off.

“It came out better than I ever imagined it,” said Justin Sandelli, 14, admiring the ambulance he painstakingly stenciled on the wall for the graffiti project.

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Assisting him with the painting were fellow Morristown High student Emila LaRosa, recent graduate Darren Rabinowitz, Drew University student Dana DeBarros and Brooklyn artist Brad Smith, who supervised the operation for nonprofit sponsor ARTS! By the People.

“I’m so glad we finished it. I thought I was going to have heat stroke,” said Emily, who likes the end results. “I’m surprised how good it came out.”

Working with this bunch was a “spectacular” experience, Brad said.

“They all had ownership of parts of this,” he said. “They all were hungry to work.”

Karen Johansen, president of the EMS squad, described the mural as “phenomenal,” adding that she was moved that the kids chose to describe her volunteers as “heroes” in the painting.

“I had the pleasure of watching the kids transform a dull grey wall into art with spray paint. I was fascinated watching them paint layer after layer giving the forms depth and life,” Karen said.

“The mural relates to the Squad – we have been serving the Morristown community for 50 years; we are all volunteer; and sometimes it seems like our ambulances burst onto the scene. The kids decided upon ‘heroes.’ We do not view ourselves that way. It is quite flattering that the kids do.”

The graffiti team burned through about three dozen cans of spray paint.

“They did a a great job, working hard in the sun. They turned a grey, blank wall into what you see now,” said Paul Rabinowitz, co-founder of ABTP and Darren’s dad.

Darren leaves today, June 7, for a summer fellowship in Israel, where he will help run a summer camp to aid underprivileged Ethiopian Jews.

He may fly with fingers stained from two days of creating and painting stencils for the ABTP and EMS logos. The project taught him some practical lessons. Like…

“If you press too hard on a stencil, your fingers will hurt.”

And:

“Sunscreen is important.”

Darren acknowledged his new respect for graffiti artists.

“There’s an art to holding a spray can and using it properly. Even doing straight lines is hard. It’s way different than (with) a paint brush,” he said.

He quickly has developed a discerning eye for graffiti.

“You can tell who has skill and who does not,” Darren said. “You can say, ‘That’s good, or bad.'”

MURALISTS (L-R): Darren Rabinowitz, Justin Sandelli, Brooklyn artist Brad Smith, Dana DeBarros and Emily LaRosa. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
MURALISTS (L-R): Darren Rabinowitz, Justin Sandelli, Brooklyn artist Brad Smith, Dana DeBarros and Emily LaRosa. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

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