By Britney Barnes

February 20, 2012 | 9:24 p.m.

His career started in education teaching at a high school and Juvenile Hall. Then at Orange County Jail, he worked with minors being tried as adults.

His mission eventually turned to stopping graffiti, which branched out to extolling the virtues of good nutrition and conserving water.

Michael Howard teaches through art.

The Costa Mesa resident has painted nearly 800 murals on school campuses over the last 18 years as the founder and director of the Operation Clean Slate. The Costa Mesa-based nonprofit’s small staff does about 80 to 100 murals a year in Orange, Los Angeles and soon San Diego county schools.

“I’m just trying to help. I’m just trying to help the community look nicer,” he said. “I’m trying to help spread positive messages of eating right and exercising, not using tobacco, and being safe when you walk to school.”

The murals are a way to stop graffiti and beautify a school while educating children and raising their self-esteem, Howard said.

The murals also spread a positive message — themes he doesn’t just celebrate for children, but actually embody in his own lifestyle.

“I’m one to practice what I preach, so I do,” he said. “I don’t want to be painting an issue and then not really feeling it, not being a part of that.”

Operation Clean Start began in the early ’90s after Howard was struck by the sight of graffiti while driving on the San Diego (405) Freeway to Los Angeles. It wasn’t an uncommon site, but it hit him differently that day.

“This time it was like a cry for help,” he said. “It was literally like something’s wrong. It hit me hard.”

The idea stuck with him back at his job at Juvenile Hall, where he brought his students into a conversation about graffiti. They had a lot to say.

He ended up surveying about 3,000 kids on the topic, including what else they thought they could be doing with their time.

Murals came up.

At first it was intimidating painting a large mural on a wall, Howard said.

A creative person with artistic hobbies growing up, he enlisted friends and a former colleague to help with the art aspect. Navigating the bureaucracy, though, “was a whole different animal,” he said.

“I also just got bumped and bruised along the way,” he said. “It wasn’t easy.”

For Howard, graffiti drags down property values, scares people and perpetrates more graffiti.

“It’s unsightly — visual terrorism,” he said. “It makes me angry. I think it looks ugly and I’m not talking about graffiti art. There’s a difference…. Graffiti-style art or not, if it’s in the community and we don’t want it there, it’s vandalism, plain and simple.”

It took two years before Howard stopped teaching to devote himself to his organization full time. Still, the nonprofit has never been fully secure, and the last five years haven’t been easy.

Grants have been harder to come by. Operation Clean Slate has had to cut back.

Uncertainty, he said, is an unavoidable risk of being in the nonprofit sector. He sees the gains of what he is doing as well worth it.

“We are competing with some causes that are just heart-wrenching, from feeding homeless people to battered women,” he said. “There are all sorts of issues that are so important and yet we are, too. We are important too. We’re impacting lots of kids.”

britney.barnes@latimes.com

Twitter: @britneyjbarnes

By Britney Barnes

February 13, 2012 | 8:21 p.m.

Despite dark gray rain clouds threatening to let loose Monday morning, students and adults kept painting a colorful mural on the side of a portable classroom facing the playground at College Park Elementary School.

The mural at the Costa Mesa campus featured hands holding the Earth inside a raindrop, with a rainbow above and brightly colored flowers on the side. The slogans “Save Water Every Day” along the top and “No Excuses” on the bottom will be added later.

“It adds color to our school — [the school's] all gray, blue and white, and boom,” said fourth-grader Jessica Zamora, 9, pointing to the mural she helped paint. Jessica also helped design part of it.

Members of Operation Clean Slate, a Costa Mesa-based nonprofit, with Mesa Consolidated Water District lead the students in painting the mural. Pacific Life Insurance Co. provided funding.

Adams Elementary School was the recipient of a similar mural about saving water last year.

The College Park mural comes at a time when funds for campus beautification projects are hard to come by, said Principal Julie McCormick.

“This is such a beautiful mural to have on campus,” she said. “It’s so colorful, and it will carry a very important message on conservation for many years.”

The mural is meant to brighten up the school while reminding students about the importance of saving water, said Michael Howard, the executive director of Operation Clean Slate.

“It’s an important issue for us in Southern California. We live in a dry climate,” he said. “For years to come, water is going to be an important issue.”

Mesa Consolidated board member Jim Atkinson, who was also out painting Monday morning, said the community is saving water, but more needs to be done.

“I’d like to see all the schools with a mural with a water message,” he said. “The education of our kids about water is an important message. It’s really important that they learn that message young and carry it throughout their lives.”

britney.barnes@latimes.com

Twitter: @britneyjbarnes

OC Arts Initiative Grants have been awarded to 13 organizations by the Orange County Community Foundation (OCCF).  This year’s grants were designated for professional development activities upon the recommendation of Arts Orange County, which advises OCCF on the grants program and other arts-related matters.  “At the present time, few organizations have the resources to send staff and board members to conferences and workshops where they can gain new skills and return with new ideas and inspiration.  Yet there could hardly be a time when it is needed more,” said ArtsOC Executive Director Richard Stein at the grants reception held at its Santa Ana offices on January 23.  The grant checks were presented by OCCF Vice President of Donor Relations & Programs Todd Hanson, who reminded the attendees of OCCF’s long partnership with Arts Orange County. 

Organizations receiving the grants:  Chance Theater, City of Laguna Beach, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, Festival Ballet Theatre, Huntington Beach Art Center, Laguna Outreach Community Arts, Laguna Beach Live!, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Operation Clean Slate, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Orange County Women’s Chorus, Tri-School Theatre, VSA Orange County. 

For more info, please visit http://artsoc.org/