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Painting Underway On New Mural To Celebrate Pope's Visit To Philadelphia

By Lynne Adkins

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Students in North Philadelphia enjoyed a paint day Tuesday working on a mural to celebrate the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to the city.

Students from Saint Malachy and Saint Veronica Schools traded pencils for paint brushes to color 20 panels measuring five feet by five feet.

"The mural's about faith," said mural artist Cesar Viveros. "It's about family, family fully alive."

pope mural artist Cesar Viveros
Mural artist Cesar Viveros (credit: Lynne Adkins)

It's not hard. Panels are penciled in with design and numbers. The young artists, like Kacee simply painted by the number.

"I'm painting two," she said. "So I know how to paint two because it says two on there and I just find two on here and paint."

pope mural
Panels are penciled in with design and numbers.(credit: Lynne Adkins)

But figuring out what it will look like isn't easy. Semaj had no idea what he was painting.

"To tell you the truth, no," he said. "We'll probably figure it out once it's all finished."

When finished, there will be 150 colorful, hand-painted panels.

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