‘We are home because of Mary’

Mary Sutphen came by her new mural based on a long passion.

Sutphen worked with churches to help children and families as they made their way from the border to find their connections. Before the Trump Administration shut down the border, it made her happy to be part of the volunteer force feeding and helping asylum seekers.

“I would take them to El Paso for a bus or plane and take them out to eat,” she said. “It was the most wonderful time of my life.”

Sutphen bought stuff from the Dollar Tree – coloring books, sticker books, whatever – she said you could buy a whole lot for $50. She would take them to get haircuts and pick out whatever they wanted.

“They were just so proud and humble,” She said. “They would come over to me because they were curious, and I would blow bubbles. I was so glad to get those small people from Honduras and Guatemala, they were each very special – usually a parent and a child together.”

Antony and Dulce particularly stuck with her. Sutphen picked them up and, even though they spoke different languages, they managed to have a conversation. They wanted to know if she had a cow. Dulce, a 6-year-old girl was excited to see the cows along the highway from Las Cruces to El Paso.

When Sutphen saw the project artist Sonya Fe was doing, the mural “Chickens and Children do Not Belong in Cages,” she contacted the artist for her own mural to remind her of the happiness she had as she helped the children.

“I just really wanted happy children on a mural,” she said. “She’s such a fantastic artist. She (Sonya Fe) painted me children who are having fun – there is a girl over the bathroom window, with polka dots falling off her dress onto my dog.”

Sutphen said she wishes she could help the children more.

“They stuck in my heart,” she said. “It touched my soul, and I wanted a remembrance of it. I had a blank wall, so I asked Sonya. It felt like [the children] were home with me.”

Sutphen said she she will have the mural on the wall as long as she lives in the home. Happy children play instruments and dance across the house.

“That’s Part 2 of Chickens and Children,” Fe said. “It’s called ‘We are home, because of Mary.’”

Fe said she tries to create her work in a way people don’t usually see murals.

“I’m painting so people can see work they won’t see ordinarily on walls but that you got to go to museums and galleries to see,” she said.  “Since some people don’t go into galleries and museums, I was trying to bring that look to them.”

Fe said when Mary told her about the children, Fe decided to bring the children to life in the back yard, telling Sutphen, “You brought them home to roost, so to speak.”

Working to make the colors and shapes organic to the building, Fe said she didn’t want the mural to pop out and look like a poster but rather wanted to blend with the landscape while making it joyous, as well.

“It looks festive,” she said. “They got home, and they got out of the cage.”

Fe said because Sutphen told her do what she wanted, she was able to create from a point of joy.

“It’s playful,” Fe said. “This one was a lot of freedom, and that’s why I had a lot of fun doing it.”