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Jorge De La Torre dips his brush while working on one of three projects at Eighth Street and Silver Avenue Southwest. Working Classrooms and several Downtown businesses sponsored the projects.

Galen Clarke/Tribune

Denisse Del Rio (left) and Abraham Mejia transform a small building Downtown into a public art project overseen by renowned Mexico City artist Raymundo Sesma.

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A lonely trash bin behind the Flying Star Cafe in Downtown is getting its chance to be a piece of art.

Nearby, a building that once housed boilers is being transformed into an all-hours gallery.

A third structure that once housed electrical equipment is becoming a mural.

And seven students ranging in age from 12 to 20 are learning what it means to be artists on a grander scale.

Over the past two weeks, the students have been working with Mexican artist Raymundo Sesma on transforming the trash-bin housing and two outbuildings in a parking lot at Eighth Street and Silver Avenue Southwest into a three-part art gallery.

The students began work on the project July 16 and will finish Friday.

The three structures will have the same color pattern, indicating that they're a set. As the centerpiece, one building has had its doors replaced by glass and will soon display art projects for passersby to enjoy from the outside.

The students working with Sesma are part of Working Classroom, an award-winning arts education program in Albuquerque that provides students the opportunity to put their education to practice in the field.

Working Classroom is paying for Sesma's expenses. He has been donating his time, energy and expertise.

Infill Solutions and PNM donated the use of the three structures.

The trash bin and the outbuilding beside it - which once contained boilers back when the Southern Union Gas Co. occupied the site - are owned by Infill Solutions.

"It's in that building that we're going to put an art gallery," said Chris Calott of Infill Solutions. "The third building is owned by PNM and is what's known as a transformer vault. It's just a big blank building."

Transforming buildings, bridges, and other structures are what Sesma is known for. He lives part time in Mexico City and part time in Milan, Italy, and he has been commissioned to produce art all over the world.

Sesma said he doesn't work for galleries or museums but prefers to create art outside for everyone to see. He selects objects that have a three-dimensional appeal - like a port crane in Italy he treated with resin - rather than painting murals on flat surfaces.

"When I talk about intervention in an urban context, I mean as an artist," Sesma said. "Normal artists work in two different dimensions, but I like to work in three dimensions."

Nan Elsasser, founder of Working Classroom, said Sesma's work is extraordinary.

"What he does is he finds old buildings and old machinery," Elsasser said. "He takes all these old industrial buildings, and he totally transforms them without changing the structure, and then he paints in a way that adds dimensions and perspectives."

Sesma said he painted the buildings behind the Flying Star Cafe in such a way that they blend in with the surrounding urban landscape, even though the primary color is green.

"By people coming in and making a city with concrete, they destroyed the natural color of the landscape. So I am adding back the color," Sesma said. "It's an artificial way, but it brings back the natural color."

Sesma said selecting the color was an important part of the artistic process.

"If there's a way to make something urban be more dignified, it's the color," Sesma said.

Student Aaron Kruchoski, 16, said he has been inspired by Sesma's artistic approach to transforming buildings.

"It gives me new ideas for things that I can do for art that I never thought of before," Kruchoski said. "I do other things besides drawing, like ceramics and stuff, but this is new to me."

Calott said that, after the project is finished, Infill Solutions will still own the gallery building but continue to make it available to city arts organizations.

"The idea is that you can put art in the building, lock the door, turn on the lights and people can view the art any time of day or night by walking by or driving by," he said.