A MESSAGE REINCARNATED

Five years ago, Andrew Sabori traveled to Ellis Island in search of some family history. What he found was a project.

Actually, his wife found it.

During their tour of the immigration station-turned-museum, Roberta Sabori noticed a small, black-and-white photograph of a mural that once covered the walls of what was then known as Aliens' Dining Hall at Ellis Island.

As a professional artist and accomplished muralist in his own right, Sabori was fascinated by the Depression-era painting.

Years of painstaking research later, Sabori is now trying to re-create the mural on large canvas panels in his Pahrump studio. And he's getting some help from high school art students in Pahrump and from the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, 1201 W. Lake Mead Drive.

"I was curious as hell about the mural. It just piqued my curiosity," said Sabori, 61. "I'm also a history buff."

The original work by Edward Laning was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration and completed in 1937. Titled "The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America," it shows new arrivals to the country cultivating wheat, laying railroad track and laboring in steel mills.

The mural hung in the dining hall until Ellis Island closed in 1954, and it was left behind as the abandoned buildings fell into disrepair. All but a few of the original panels were eventually destroyed by neglect and the elements.

"It was just discarded like an old shoe," Sabori said the mural. "That got me kind of mad."

By re-creating the work, Sabori hopes to draw some attention to Laning, who died in relative obscurity in 1981. "I admire the guy. Hopefully he'll get his just reward," he said.

The project also has plenty of personal significance.

Sabori's parents were processed at Ellis Island when they arrived from Sicily during the 1920s. Later, Sabori's father helped build a road to the hilltop observatory in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, a WPA project just like Laning's mural.

Sabori began his re-creation in June, when he set out to paint a single scene from the original work on a piece of leftover canvas.

All he had to work from were some black-and-white photos of the old mural that were taken more than 60 years ago. "I pretty much have to use my imagination on the colors," Sabori said.

What remains of the Ellis Island mural are a few panels that now hang in a federal courthouse not far from the Brooklyn Bridge. The Saboris went to see them as part of their research, but the paintings were mounted high on the wall and were difficult to photograph.

Sabori expects to be finished with the 19th and final panel of his re-creation by the end of the year. After that, he hopes to persuade the museum at Ellis Island or the Smithsonian to display it, at least temporarily.

Agassi school art teacher Ken Ruffin jumped at the chance for his students to participate in the project. "It just sort of broadens their horizon," he said.

"Just learning about Ellis Island was something new to me," 17-year-old Agassi junior Whitney Salahuddin said last week as she applied gray paint to the portion of the mural set in a steel mill. "I can't even imagine what the original looked like or someone taking time to do it."

Agassi senior Brandon Jackson isn't all that interested in the history of the thing, but he considers his additions to Sabori's mural good training for the career in art he hopes to have some day.

"I think it's pretty cool," said Jackson, who is 17 and a member of what will be the charter school's first graduating class next spring. "It's good experience, and I'm getting better at it."

The students have helped a great deal, Sabori said, but the bulk of the detail work has been done by him, his wife and his assistant, Angelique Stefanelli, 19, a college junior who stops by his Pahrump studio several times a week.

Stefanelli's great-grandparents also were immigrants from Sicily who entered the country by way of Ellis Island.

Apparently, that's not as big a coincidence as it sounds. According to the National Park Service, more than 40 percent of Americans can trace their ancestry through Ellis Island. In its 62 years of operation, the station processed more than 12 million immigrant steamship passengers.

The main building sat abandoned for 30 years before it was restored and opened as a museum in 1990.

When Sabori's version of the mural is done, it will be close to 90 feet long, about half the size of Laning's work.

That isn't the only difference. Sabori is using acrylic paint while Laning used oils. And judging from archival photos, Sabori's version will be softer and sunnier than the original.

As much as possible, though, Sabori is trying to remain true to Laning's vision. It's a constant battle, he said. "This is not my style. Mine is totally different."

Salahuddin, for one, hopes Sabori succeeds in finishing the mural and finding someplace to exhibit it. The junior at Agassi would love to see what became of her gray brush strokes someday.

"If I see the painting somewhere, I'll know I had something to do with it," she said.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.